Volvo D13 engine: 13-litre diesel, versions, ratings and trucks

The Volvo D13 is Volvo Trucks’ 13-litre diesel engine with six cylinders in line. Volvo Trucks North America describes it as a “Direct Injection Diesel” with a bore and stroke of 131 x 158 mm and a displacement of 780 cubic inches, which its EPA 2027 engine page gives as 12.8 litres. In Europe it is the 13-litre diesel of the Volvo FH, FM and FMX as a Euro 6 engine, and from 2019 the Volvo FH with I-Save also came with the turbocompound D13TC; in North America it comes as the D13 Turbo Compound and, from March 2025, the D13 VGT. In May 2026 Volvo announced an all-new 13-litre engine platform, with a diesel D13 and a gas version, and in North America a new D13 for the EPA 2027 emission standards.

Status as of 26 October 2026. Volvo Trucks’ European engine range page, Volvo Trucks North America’s D13, D13TC and EPA 2027 powertrain pages, Volvo’s two press releases of May 2026, the D13 VGT release of March 2025, and Volvo’s 2019 I-Save release, story and brochure were read on 26 October 2026. Each figure below is given in the units its document uses: hp and Nm in Volvo’s European documents, hp and lb-ft in North America. How the units relate is explained in kW, hp and Nm: how to read a truck’s power figures.

What the D13 is

The engine’s name carries its size. Volvo’s European pages call it the “13-liter diesel”; Volvo Trucks North America lists its displacement as “780 [13L]” on the D13 and D13TC pages and as “780 (12.8)” (cubic inches and litres) on the EPA 2027 page. The site’s model records carry 12.8 litres.

Fuel reaches the cylinders through what the D13 page calls “Volvo’s common-rail fuel system”. The North American pages give the base data below; a dash means that page does not give the item.

Volvo Trucks North America’s EPA 2027 page speaks of “more than one million 13‑liter engines produced globally”.

Fuels

The D13 is a diesel engine. Volvo’s European engine range page says the 13-litre diesel can switch to biodiesel and HVO (see What is HVO?). For the new platform announced on 12 May 2026, Volvo states that the new engine platform “is ready for alternative fuels such as biodiesel/B100, HVO, biogas/bio-LNG and green hydrogen”; the release words the hydrogen part as “future hydrogen applications”. The gas-fuelled 13-litre on that platform carries a different name, G13, the name under which Volvo’s engine page lists its 13-litre gas engine, powered by LNG or bio-LNG; it is not covered on this page (see LNG and bio-LNG trucks).

In North America the EPA 2027 page gives the fuel specification as “Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel, 15 ppm”, and Volvo Trucks North America’s May 2026 release says the new engine “is compatible with renewable diesel (R100) and biodiesel blends up to B20”.

Emission class

Europe. Volvo’s 2019 documents name two Euro 6 step D engines: the “D13 eSCR Euro 6 step D” and the “D13TC Euro 6 step D” (the step letters are explained in Euro VI (Euro 6) and Euro 7 for trucks). Volvo’s 2019 story adds that the Turbo Compound engine “features a cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation System which reduces the amount of nitrogen oxide during the combustion process”. The May 2026 release calls the new D13 and its gas sibling “new Euro6 engines” and says they “fulfil the new legal requirements NNR3 (New Noise Regulation Phase 3)”.

North America. The D13 page says that “all Volvo’s engines are OBD 2016-compliant”. For the next-generation engine, Volvo Trucks North America says it “is designed to meet the EPA’s 35‑milligram NOx standard and comply with emissions requirements in all 50 states”, and that the EPA 2027 standards take effect on 1 January 2027. Its EPA 2027 page describes the aftertreatment (Volvo’s EATS) as integrating “pre‑heating, DOC/DPF, and dual SCR chambers”.

Versions and generations

D13 eSCR (Europe). The standard European D13 of the Euro 6 step D period is named in Volvo’s 2019 footnotes as the “D13 eSCR Euro 6 step D”, and the May 2026 release names the engine its new D13 replaces as “the previous standard D13 eSCR engine”. The documents read for this page do not give the year this version was introduced.

D13TC Turbo Compound, Europe (2019). Volvo announced the Volvo FH with I-Save on 7 March 2019, built around “the new D13TC engine”, and said it “will be available to order from March 11, 2019 in European markets”. The release describes pistons “with a patented wave-shaped interior” and the Turbo Compound unit, “an additional turbine in the exhaust flow”; Volvo’s story of 14 May 2019 places it “after the turbo in the exhaust flow” and says it “reuses excess heat and energy from the exhaust gases”. The release lists the engine as “D13TC (Turbo Compound) 460 hp (2 600 Nm) or 500 hp (2 800 Nm)”, and the brochure gives its use as “tractors and rigids, up to 70 tons GCW”. How turbocompounding works is set out in Turbocompound engines: how they work.

D13 Turbo Compound and D13 VGT, North America. Volvo Trucks North America’s March 2025 release calls the D13 Turbo Compound “standard on the all-new Volvo VNL” and launches the Volvo D13 VGT (Variable Geometry Turbo), “standard in the all-new Volvo VNR” and selectable in the all-new VNL day cab. It lists for the D13 VGT a “seven-wave piston”, smaller needle control valves in the fuel injectors, a variable displacement oil pump and the 24-volt electrical system, with “engine options offering 405, 425, 435, and 455 HP, with torque ratings ranging from 1450 to 1850 lb. ft.” The D13TC page lists the turbocompound engine at “405-500” horsepower and “1750-1950 lb-ft” and describes its turbocharger as one whose turbine geometry is fixed.

The all-new 13-litre platform (announced 12 May 2026). Volvo Trucks announced “two all-new 13-liter engines”, a diesel D13 and a gas G13, “based on Volvo’s latest in-house developed engine platform”, with “new cylinder and turbo designs” and a revised engine brake function. Volvo writes that “many variants of the diesel version” work with its I-Roll engine stop/start function. The release said that “Sales will begin during the third quarter of 2026”, with “the first markets being Europe, Morocco, Turkey and India, later followed by North America, Asia and South Africa”.

The EPA 2027 D13, North America (announced May 2026). Volvo Trucks North America’s May 2026 release introduces a new D13 “designed to meet the 2027 emissions standards” and calls it an “all-new in-house developed engine”; it says the engine “will be available across all Volvo truck models”. The documents read do not say whether this engine and the platform of the European release are the same design; the European release lists North America among the later markets for its new platform.

Ratings as Volvo states them

In North America the EPA 2027 page gives the next-generation D13 “up to 540” horsepower and “up to 1950 lb-ft” of torque, in thirteen ratings:

For the current North American engines, the D13TC page gives 405-500 hp and 1750-1950 lb-ft, and the March 2025 release gives the D13 VGT at 405, 425, 435 or 455 hp with 1450 to 1850 lb-ft.

Engine braking is rated separately. The EPA 2027 page lists an “Engine Brake Rating at 2300 rpm (hp)” of 630, and the May 2026 release speaks of “up to 630 braking horsepower”; the D13 and D13TC pages list “Engine Break Retarding Power” as “500 HP [372 kW] @ 2200 RPM”. What an engine brake is, and how the law groups it with retarders, is explained in What is a retarder?

Trucks and buses on this site with the Volvo D13

All entries are trucks; no bus on this site records the D13. The figures are those of each model’s own page and of the source that page cites, in kilowatts and newton-metres as the site’s records keep them.

The Volvo VNL also uses the D13 but is not in the table, because its page gives the engines in Volvo’s North American units only: the D13 Turbo Compound (D13TC), 13 l, as standard, at 405-500 hp and 1750-1950 lb-ft on Volvo’s D13TC page, and from March 2025 the D13 VGT as an option in the VNL day cab, at 405, 425, 435 or 455 hp with 1450-1850 lb-ft.