The Volvo V90 Cross Country ahead of the pack

Diesel is dead. The president and CEO of Volvo, Hakan Samuelsson, virtually said as much in the middle of last month when he indicated that the latest generation of diesels developed by his company could be its last.

Now, while he did later row back by maintaining his position was not definitive, his assertion that the cost of reducing NOx emissions on diesels was too high to warrant further investment in developing new generation engines is indicative of a growing trend among automakers against oil-burners.

It seems now, if Samuelsson is to be believed, that even the cost-effectiveness of diesel in fuel economy terms is not going to be enough to satisfy those lawmakers and regulation-setters who decide such things.