THE current Volvo S60 saloon range – a rival to the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4 – starts with the 2.0 D2 Business Edition.
If you’re a company car driver, you’ll have noted that the company car tax banding starts at 25% and from £97 a month in benefit in kind tax.
Not the new Volvo S60 saloon, which is due late spring.
That’s because there will be no diesel option in the range for the first time.
Volvo says it’s because the company is accelerating its electrification programme. It was the first traditional car maker to commit to all-out electrification in July 2017.
All new Volvo models launched from 2019 will be available as either a mild petrol hybrid, plug-in petrol hybrid or battery electric vehicle.
“Our future is electric and we will no longer develop a new generation of diesel engines,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars.
“We will phase out cars with only an internal combustion engine, with petrol hybrid versions as a transitional option as we move towards full electrification. The new S60 represents the next step in that commitment.”
Last month, Volvo Cars reinforced its electrification strategy, by stating that it aims for fully electric cars to make up 50 per cent of its global sales by 2025. The announcement was made at the 2018 Beijing Auto Show, the world’s leading market for electrified cars.
The new S60, a premium mid-size sports saloon, is based on Volvo’s in-house developed Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which also underpins the new 90 Series and 60 Series cars. The S60’s estate version, the V60, was launched earlier this year in Stockholm.
The new S60 will initially be available with a range of four-cylinder Drive-E petrol engines as well as with two petrol plug-in hybrid versions. Mild hybrid versions will follow next year.
Production of the new S60 will start this fall at Volvo Cars’ brand new manufacturing facility outside Charleston, South Carolina. The Charleston plant will be the only manufacturing location for the new S60. So your next S60 saloon will not only be missing a diesel, but made Stateside, too.
