Two traditional giants with varying degrees of connection to Geely Group, Volvo is seeking to cooperate with Daimler Group to develop the next generation of internal combustion engines. Given that Volvo had completely abandoned diesel cars two or three years ago, the cooperation between the two parties is destined to focus on gasoline engines. The German “Autoswap

(Behind Tenaciu3 is the Geely Group)

At present, Geely Group indirectly holds approximately 9.7% of Daimler Group shares. In September last year, Daimler Group’s R & D director revealed that the development of internal combustion engines would be suspended. Daimler and Mercedes quickly broke the rumor, but the wording was limited to “no decision to withdraw from the development of the fuel engine”. As to whether the plan was suspended or has been suspended, it has not been directly refuted.

Although the people still believe that pure fuel vehicles will soon exit the stage of history, there are more and more opinions that the internal combustion engine will not be completely terminated by electric vehicles as quickly as expected, and the two still have a common period. Over time, the internal combustion engine will continue to develop as part of the hybrid.

Volvo and Daimler’s cooperation is not an example, especially since Volvo only radically announced all-in electric vehicles two years ago. Another traditional giant Jaguar Land Rover, which sees electric vehicles as a turning point, announced in 2017 that it will fully transform its electrification. However, last year, Jaguar Land Rover began to seek cooperation with BMW to use the BMW Group’s internal combustion engine and entry vehicle platform.

At present, Volvo ’s main gasoline engine is the VEA series that entered service around 2013. The VEA series is divided into in-line 3-cylinder (1.5L) and in-line 4-cylinder ( 2.0L) two displacements, 1.5T, 2.0T and 2.0 mechanical turbo double supercharged configurations, the power output can cover 90kW-230kW. In addition to all Volvo models, the VEA series is also installed on some models of the Geely and Link brand.

Volvo’s two major vehicle platforms, CMA and SPA, are both front-drive front-drive basic platforms. Traditionally, there is no intention to develop rear-drive vehicles. If it really cooperates with Daimler, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz A-Class, B-Class, CLA, GLA and other entry-level models based on the Mercedes-Benz MFA2 front-drive platform can share the next-generation engine that the two parties cooperate with.

At present, Mercedes-Benz gasoline engines for front-wheel drive vehicles are mainly M282 (1.3T) and M260 (2.0T) series. However, these two series were only put into use in 2018, and the technological level is relatively advanced. Mercedes-Benz will not need to update these engines urgently. The VEA series engines used by Volvo, although developed earlier, have not reached the bottom of the rush to upgrade. The intention of the two parties’ cooperation can be understood as a plan for future R & D costs.

This means that for at least the next 10 years, these traditional giants don’t think that internal combustion engines will be completely history.

But on the other hand, among the giants who once lived, we started to cooperate in this research and development, indicating that although the internal combustion engine will not die out soon, it will play a much less important role in the future automotive industry-it cannot be alone as before Cost recovery is not worthy of much R & D investment, and it will no longer play the decisive technology role of (as usual) .

In 2018, the EU launched the new emission regulation WLTP, which caused a considerable part of the large-displacement V12 engines to bid farewell to the market. The gradual tightening of carbon emission restrictions has caused car companies to invest most of their resources in electric drive technology, and on the other hand, one by one to end large-displacement, high-performance fuel vehicle products.

Not long ago, it was rumored that Mercedes-Benz’s high-performance brand AMG would change the current 4.0T V8 engine to a 2.0T four-cylinder engine and hybrid power system on the next-generation C63 model. After the 12-cylinder and 8-cylinder engines are dying one by one, maybe soon, the 2.0L four-cylinder engine will be counted as “large displacement”. The statement that the internal combustion engine “does not die but dies”, to put it another way: Although it will not die, it will eventually wither.