It was a shock two years ago, when Volvo announced that it will renew all its engines (four, five and six cylinders) with a new generation of four cylinders. Nothing but inline fours. All that of course without any compromise on power, drivability or luxury feel. This new engine family has just been revealed. Our illustration shows the diesel on the left, and the gas engine, taller, is on the right. Both are 2-liter 4-cylinder sharing the same lower block.

Volvo wants to be known as a premium brand, and its top gas engine will have serious horsepower, more than 300-hp, thanks to the association of a supercharger and a turbocharger. The best diesel will give more than 230-hp, quite a lot for a 2-liter engine, but the diesel has a lot of tech in it. In the top engine, fuel pressure in the common rail will reach 2,500 bar. No other manufacturer goes higher. Then Volvo has a trick which it calls i-Art. Strange name for an engine technology, i-Art is based on small processors at the top of each injector to precisely monitor fuel pressure for each individual cylinder. It’s still common-rail, but it’s getting close to the unit injector fuel system which Volkswagen had successfully used for many years. Actually, we may wonder when unit injector fuel systems will be back in passenger cars…

The 60 series Volvo (S60, V60 and XC60) will get these new engines, beginning before the end of the year.