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Sweeping plans to cut the range of power units used by Ford Group brands across Europe will not affect the D5, the most successful engine series yet built by Volvo.

Several engines are set to be discontinued as part of moves to rationalise the US car manufacturer’s line-up of power units, but the turbodiesel D5 unit is set to remain under the bonnets of the Swedish brand until at least the middle of the next decade.

“If you did an audit of the number of power units used by Ford in Europe, you would soon discover that we have too many,” said Volvo powertrain development managing director Derek Crabb.

“We have already taken some out of use, but the total still runs well into double figures and some overlap each other with the result that we’re almost having internal competition.

“We need to reduce the total to a number of strategic engines and we are working to migrate down to an agreed range of diesel and petrol units – but the D5 will carry on for some time yet.”

Crabb said engineering executives at Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo were now holding regular meetings to discuss every new concept and agreeing on the best routes for development work.

“Under the sharing agreement between the whole of the European enterprise of Ford, new ideas have to be agreed with the rest of the group. We go through all the major programmes on a regular basis to make sure that the engines we’re working on are applicable to all the brands.

“The idea is to do away with duplication. If we want to do a direct injection unit, for instance, we need to ensure that it is not re-invented on every engine. One brand might lead the development and the rest of us will copy it.

“We’re looking for cost reduction on the one hand, but the point is that if we do the job properly at the outset, it saves time for the other brands and we get better quality assurance as well,” said Crabb.

Land Rover and Jaguar are set to make use of Volvo’s latest 3.2-litre petrol engine, now in production at Bridgend in Wales, but the D5 is likely to remain exclusive to the Swedish brand.

Built at Skoved near Gothenburg, it was launched in July 2001 for the S60, V70 and S80 ranges in 130bhp and 163bhp forms. Last year, major revisions increased output to 185bhp and the engine is now also available in the V50 and S40 ranges.

“This is a very strong engine for Volvo. Planned annual volume was 30,000 units when it was launched, but we have had to expand to more than 100,000 units.

“We have a very good relationship with PSA Peugeot Citroën on power units and this engine lies on the boundaries of that relationship. We have been sharing the technology of it with PSA, and how we use this and a PSA engine of the future is still part of our discussions,” said Crabb.