Last month, Volvo AB unveiled plans to build its next generation of truck engines for North America in the United States-at a Mack Trucks engine plant in Hagerstown, Md., to be specific. The pronouncement kicked up talk about the futures of all three diesel engine brands the Swedish company controls-Mack, Volvo, and Renault-and whether they all would eventually use the same basic platform.
Part of the answer may have come in June, when Volvo took the wraps off its new FH16 tractor. You’re forgiven if you don’t know the model, a design not sold in North America, but the FH16 is aimed at demanding haulers-guys who deal with higher gross weights and longer vehicle lengths than you’d typically find in Europe. It’s also designed to fill a market should the need for more horsepower and torque go beyond quarries and logging roads. “The ongoing bid to improve road haulage efficiency in Europe … will call for more powerful trucks,” he said during the FH16’s launch event in Sweden, meaning there’s a serious push for higher GVWs on European highways.
What does a truck model that’ll never see these shores have to do with you? At the heart of it is an entirely new 16-litre engine producing 610 horsepower and up to 2,065 foot-pounds of torque: the D16C. Halonen says Volvo intends to bring the D16C to North America some time before 2007. Aside from a range of power ratings, it also may come in two paint colours: Volvo green and Mack black.
I had a chance to test the engine’s performance on the winding, hilly highways of northern Sweden this summer. My experience won’t be easy to forget.
They truck differently in Europe, so their engines need to perform a little differently than ours. They need torque as opposed to horsepower. Trucks are limited by law to 90 kilometres an hour-they just don’t go any faster-so horsepower isn’t of great concern. Volvo’s strategy in developing the D16C with its monstrous torque rating is to improve average trip speeds by supplying more torque to the drive wheels, keeping hill-climbing capacity at a maximum and hence cutting transit times in the mountains of Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe.
The horsepower is there for sure, but it’s the ruler-straight torque curve that makes the D16 so driveable. There’s a whopping 1,550 foot-pounds of torque there as you engage the clutch at 800 rpm or so, and it shoots up to 2,065 at 950 rpm, holding there all the way out to 1,500 rpm.
That means in any gear, and at any rpm in the gear range, there’s a whole lot of torque under foot.
The transmission that goes with the D16C-you don’t have a choice when you buy an FH16-is a synchronized Volvo 12-speed (a three-gate pattern, with a high/low range shift and a high/low split in each gear) making it much like our 18-speeds. The steps are fairly wide, 600 rpm or so, and having full torque all the way through the range is a real treat.
Currently, the D16C uses V-Pulse technology, same as the North American D12, to meet Europe’s Euro 3 emissions standards. The 610-hp version uses a waste-gated turbo; variable-geometry turbos are not yet necessary. Volvo says the next step in the pursuit of cleaner-burning diesels in Europe will likely be exhaust aftertreatment. Like other European engine builders, Volvo is looking at urea-based aftertreatment, noting that engine performance will not be compromised in the process. The program manager on the D16C project, Lennart Langervik, says there’s enough capacity in the D16 platform to easily pump 700 hp out of the thing while still meeting Euro 3.
The re-engineering of the D16 was pretty complete-the only similarities between the previous generation (a 550-hp version) and the D16C are the main-bearing cap screws and the bore and stroke. Everything else is new. Most notable are the switch to an overhead cam and a rear-mounted gear train, which changes the appearance of the engine significantly, making it much narrower along the length of the block. This, they say, improves cooling capability and reduces engine noise.
Word is the D16C will fit under the hood of our North American VN-model Volvos. As for the European version of the D12, it’s also scheduled to undergo a revamp along the same lines some time soon, making both engines similar in design and function. It’s safe to assume that the next-generation D12 will replace the one we use here as well.
The emissions issue will certainly be a mitigating factor in the D16’s North American debut, but Volvo won’t comment on when or how they plan to integrate the engine into the North American data book. Currently, Volvo offers the D12 as standard with the Cummins ISX as an option on the VN spec sheet.
For my jaunt through the Swedish hills, the D16C was packaged in several different configurations of the FH16 tractor, each equipped with the new engines. In all, I spent about five hours behind the wheel.
My first observation: the D16C is quiet, dead quiet. You can barely hear the engine at idle, and at speed on the road there’s a hum in the cab that could have been the D16C. Could have been the truck, too, but when you’re sitting on top of 610 horses, you’d expect to hear something from the stable.
To get a sense of how 2,065 foot-pounds of torque all through the power band feels, visualize the torque curve of a typical North American diesel: like an inverted cone with a slightly flattened top-some flatter than others across a broader rev range-the peak slightly off to the left. Clutch engagement torque at idle is 800 to 1,000 foot-pounds or so, and it climbs to its peak usually at around 1,300 rpm. It stays there for a while, maybe to 1,550 rpm, then starts to drop off as the revs climb further.
The D16C starts with 1,550 foot-pounds at idle and then delivers its maximum 2,065 foot-pounds from 950 right up to 1500 rpm. That means there’s serious capacity for acceleration right up to the shift point. When you shift there, there’s no sense of the engine dying as the torque curve starts to droop. Steady pulling power all the way through each gear. A marvelous concept!
About half the Volvo trucks sold in Canada sport the D12-a fine motor in its own right-but I’m looking forward to a VN with the D16.
Here’s hoping they leave it with the European-spec power map.Type: In-line six-cylinder diesel engine
with turbo and intercooler. Four valves per cylinder. Integrated cylinder head. Electronic fuel injection for each cylinder.
Output: 610 hp @ 1,600 rpm
Torque: 2,065 lb-ft @ 950-1,500 rpm
Displacement: 16.1 litres
Compression ratio: 18.0:1
Dry Weight: 1,270 kg (2,780 lb)
EMISSIONS: Euro 3 approved

The prime directive in the design of the D16C was the likely increase in European Union (EU) weights and dimensions rules. Currently, they’re allowed 18.75 meters (61.5 feet) and 44 tonnes (about 96,800 pounds). Volvo believes EU regulators will soon allow configurations similar to those now working in Sweden and Finland: 25.25 meters (82.8 feet) and 60 tonnes (132,000 pounds). The new power plant would serve them well.