Volvo has decided to take its cars in a new direction, beginning with designing a new engine. The Swedish automaker is in the process of starting production of variants of the four-cylinder engine family at the Volvo Car Group plant in Skovde. Inspired by the V4 engine family's high-efficiency and smooth driving, Volvo decided that producing its own variant would be fruitful, as the automaker would have full creative control over the product.
For about two years, the Volvo team of Swedish engineers have been preparing and working on the new Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA) engines. The plant in Skovde has been upgraded to accommodate production of the new engine. With the new section of the plant, production efficiency will increase significantly. The new engine and the Skovde plant are both a part of Volvo's plan for expansion, which includes billions of dollars worth of investment money.
The VEA engines are far more efficient than the previous six-cylinder engines and they increase performance. Volvo is manufacturing both diesel and gasoline variants of the V4, which will be taking the place of 8 different engine models on 3 platforms sometime between 2013 and 2015. Volvo Car Group has some big plans for the future. Vice President of Powertrain Engineering at Volvo believes this "marks a milestone in Volvo Cars' history". We'll have to wait and see if he's correct.
