What's all this about?
Following in the footsteps of fellow car manufacturers, the Swedish bods up at Volvo have confirmed they're going to put a three-cylinder turbocharged Drive-E petrol engine into production.
Any word on power outputs?
'Up to 180hp' was Volvo's way of putting it, which is a healthy amount from a triple. Given it is built on the same production lines as the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder Drive-E engines, it will use the same 500cc chamber set-up to deliver such power from 1.5 litres; making it bigger than Ford's EcoBoost, Vauxhall's Ecotec and Audi's TFSI motors (all 1.0 litres), Peugeot's 1.2 THP and on a par with the engine under the bonnet of the third-generation MINI Cooper.
Presumably it will power smaller Volvos?
It will be able to propel cars up to the 60-series size, so no, it's not just for the V40.
Any other details?
The Drive-E three-cylinder engine will be EU7 compliant and has already entered prototype testing ahead of production.
Matt Robinson - 14 Dec 2014