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Volvo anticipates that fully electric vehicles will make up 50 percent of its sales by 2025, according to a new report from Auto Express. Where does that leave Volvo's former bread-and-butter diesel engines? Dead and buried, that's where.

Diesel's absence will be most noticeable in the next-gen Volvo XC90, set to launch in 2021 as a 2022 model. You'll only be able to buy the next XC90 as a gasoline-electric hybrid, or as a fully electric SUV, according to Auto Express, citing an interview with Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson.

This is sad news for fans of compression ignition, but with automakers such as Honda, GM, Jaguar and many others strengthening their electric-vehicle initiatives, the writing's been on the wall for some time. Volkswagen's Dieselgate certainly hasn't helped diesel's chances -- especially in the US, which doesn't have the same entrenched feelings about oil burners as Europe does.

The Auto Express report also notes that diesel will not only be absent in the next XC90, but also for all new Volvos yet to be released. Diesel lovers, pour one out for the fallen.

It's never easy to report about another nail in diesel's coffin, but if you're getting wistful about the immediate, low-end torque a diesel offers, just remember that fully electric vehicles and many hybrids offer that sensation, too, albeit much more effectively. And in the interim, there are plenty of torquey turbo four-cylinder engines just waiting for your right foot.