The XC40 platform will also be engineered for hybrid powertrains, with Volvo insiders claiming the firm has achieved some “strong solutions” in packaging a small electric motor along with the gearbox. Volvo’s head of R&D, Peter Mertens, said: “Small diesels are becoming harder and harder to justify in small cars, because of the costly technologies that are required to make them comply.”
That could be a sign that Volvo is considering using a small petrol-electric hybrid powertrain in the cleanest 40-series models - with a
set-up based around its
new turbocharged 1.5-litre
three-cylinder engine - instead of a conventional turbodiesel