Volvo has made improvements to its automatic transmissions on its low emission DRIVe models which means that clutch-less cars now achieve the same low emission levels and strong fuel economy as manual models.
The Swedish car maker, which prides itself on being among the leading manufacturers in Europe in tackling carbon emissions, announces two new CO2 cutting initiatives; firstly its 1.6-litre diesel combined with automatic Powershift gearbox now comes with the same mpg and CO2 levels as the manual DRIVe versions and secondly, the CO2 emissions from its turbocharged, 1.6-litre T3 petrol engine with manual gearbox have now being cut to just 139 g/km.
"For the first time ever, we have managed to bring the fuel consumption in variants with automatic gearbox down to the same level as in the manual versions. An impressive achievement by our powertrain experts," says Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President Research and Development at the Volvo Car Corporation.
The four-cylinder, 1.6-litre diesel engine (115 hp) with the six-speed Powershift gearbox is available in four models; Volvo S60, V60, V70 and S80. Fuel consumption in the Volvo S60 with the 1.6D engine and Powershift now stands at 65.7mpg-the same as the manual model. This translates into CO2 emissions at 114 g/km. The corresponding figures for the Volvo V60, V70 and S80 with the same engine and gearbox are 62.8mpg and 119 g/km.
Volvo’s engineers achieved the improvements in automatic car economy by making a number of adjustments; they reduced friction between gearbox components, modified the engine and gearbox software and improved the start/stop system to cut off the diesel engine when the car is still rolling (below 5 km/h).
By improving the 1.6 litre T3 petrol engine as well, which is available in the Volvo S60 and V60, the engine experts have managed to bring fuel consumption down do around 49mpg in the S60. This corresponds to CO2 emissions at 135 g/km. For the T3 engine combined with automatic Powershift in a Volvo S60, fuel economy is around 40mpg with emissions at 164 g/km.
According to independent analysis by Transport & Environment (T&E), Volvo made the biggest leap forward in average CO2 emissions among its European rivals in 2010, cutting an industry-leading 9 per cent from all the cars it sold last year compared to 2009.
