The 367hp engine in the new Volvo V60 and S60 Polestar, one of the most powerful four-cylinder production engines in the world, has been awarded the prestigious 2017 Wards 10 Best Engines trophy.
"Not long ago, a newly designed engine that could achieve 100 hp per litre was a big deal. Today, Polestar and Volvo blow way past that mark, achieving a remarkable 184 hp per litre with the 2.0l 4-cylinder engine in the V60 Polestar," wrote editors of WardsAuto in their jury report.
"It's a threshold never before seen in our competition."
In winning the award, the Polestar engine faced off against 40 other nominated engines and models, including the BMW M2, Jaguar XE and Porsche 718 Cayman.
"We set out to increase performance and driveability, at the same time lowering consumption as well as emissions with our new engine," said Niels Möller, Chief Operating Officer of Polestar.
"With the strong efforts of our development team in combination with the cutting-edge technology of the Volvo Cars Drive-E engine family, we achieved what we set out to do.”
“This engine is the culmination of the development work that we started in 2009 with the powertrain optimisation programme, and we are proud to receive this recognition from WardsAuto as a testament to our philosophy."
The Volvo V60 and S60 Polestar, sharing engine technology with the S60 Polestar WTCC race car, are available in 47 markets around the globe.
The editors of WardsAuto have tested all 40 nominated vehicles on public roads during the past three months under normal driving conditions.
The overall result was based on performance, fuel economy, noise level and the application of new technology.