Volvo could have a protracted and distinguished historical past promoting wagons, however altering purchaser preferences and evolving methods of defining automobile varieties imply long-roof fashions is probably not part of its future.
Chatting with Autocar on the unveiling of the ES90 – an electrical ‘sedan’ which is definitely a liftback with elevated floor clearance – Volvo CEO Jim Rowan stated the Geely-owned model might forgo wagons in its lineup.
“Yeah, as a result of I feel it’s modified, proper? SUVs have modified with trip top,” Mr Rowan stated when requested if Volvo might proceed with out wagons.
“One of many issues that modified over time is the choice makers of shopping for a Volvo automobile over-indexes to ladies, as a result of they like the next trip top.
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“Then with our saloons (sedans), with the ES90 you will note we’ve introduced the trip top up, fairly than down.
“You get a lot room in an EV (electrical car) automobile. You don’t have an engine, so you may push the cabin ahead and get loads of boot house.”
Volvo’s first wagon was the Duett of 1953, which was adopted by long-roof variations of the Amazon and 140 Sequence.
Subsequent in style wagons from the model have included the 200 Sequence produced throughout the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, in addition to the 850 of the Nineties.
At the moment, Volvo provides two wagons: the V60 and V90, each of which will be had in high-riding Cross Nation guise. Solely the V60 Cross Nation is bought right here.
A growth in reputation for SUVs, even in traditionally wagon-friendly Europe, has seen wagons nearly fully disappear from world mannequin lineups, with even sedans feeling the pressure.
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Volvo 200-Sequence
Out of Volvo’s present or upcoming EVs, the ES90 is the mannequin that the majority resembles a conventional passenger car.
The EX30, EX40 (previously XC40 Recharge), EC40 (previously C40), EX60 (due in 2026) and EX90 are all SUVs, whereas the EM90 is a Chinese language-market individuals mover based mostly closely on the Zeekr 009.
Equally, the S60 sedan and V60 Cross Nation are Volvo’s solely passenger vehicles in its Australian lineup, sharing the showroom with a few of the aforementioned EVs in addition to the XC40, XC60 and XC90 however accounting for a a lot, a lot smaller share of the model’s gross sales.
Whereas the ES90 is carefully associated to the EX90, a lot because the combustion-powered S90 counterpart is carefully associated to the XC90, Mr Rowan stated it’s unlikely Volvo would introduce one thing like an ‘ES60’ passenger automobile to be twinned with the EX60.
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Volvo ES90
“It’s costly to convey totally different fashions to the market, it’s costly to maintain these fashions out there and it’s costly to launch them from a advertising perspective,” the manager informed Autocar.
Mr Rowan added that, for instance, the XC60 SUV could possibly be spun off in methods to turn into an efficient alternative for the V90 wagon.
“Reasonably than convey a V90, for instance, are we higher to place that automobile [the XC60] in a barely totally different means? We’ve the Black Version, now we have the Cross Nation version. So we then now have totally different editions of the identical base automobile,” he stated.
“It’s a lot, less expensive and far more cost-effective for us to drive extra quantity via that very same platform and that very same kind issue.
“We’re a fairly small firm with restricted sources. We’re making very aware decisions about the place we need to play the sport and the place we’re differentiated.”