NEWS
Volvo glamour cars coming
Once Volvo's next-gen S90, XC60 and S60 are done, the focus is on "beautiful and sporty cars"Swedish car maker Volvo is planning to return to sports cars and convertibles to provide more razzle-dazzle for the brand, but only once it's bread-and-butter have been renewed.
The Chinese-owned European brand used to sell the C70 convertible (pictured) but that car was discontinued in 2013, and Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Volvo Cars, says making safe cars sexy "is a hard sell".
"Safety as such, only safety, would never be enough. We need a combination of safety and sexy design, that's what we want to play with," he said, noting that a sports car would help significantly with the brand's image.
Mertens says new convertible and sports car models will be based on the company's SPA or Scalable Product Architecture, which means the new glamour car won't be small.
"The SPA is highly scalable. It's S60 is one bookend, XC90 is other bookend. We can build anything in between, mid-size to large, everything."
So when can we expect to see Volvo bring the sexy back? It's unlikely anything will emerge in the next few years, because as Mertens explained, there is a plan in place, and it revolves around renewing current models based on SPA first.
"We have to focus on what is absolutely essential right now, it's the renewal of our existing products and then once that is done we are going to think about beautiful and sporty cars. We think about coupes and convertibles once we've finished this line-up."
"We showed the Concept Coupe; it was the first vehicle we showed in Geneva a year ago on the SPA platform. The reason for showing that coupe and not a show car for XC90 was to show the bandwidth of the architecture, what you can do with it.
"Going from something which is a two door, 2+2 seat super sleek sporty coupe, up to a sculptured SUV, XC90, that is unique in the industry. I don't think any other architecture has that kind of flexibility," observed Mertens.
But it's not only sports cars that will revive Volvo's styling mojo, insists Mertens, with the next-generation large luxury sedan expected to be a glamourpuss. The replacement for the S80, dubbed S90, is much closer to production and is the next car from Volvo to use SPA, followed by the XC60 and S60.
Mertens refused to comment on the timing or detail of the medium-sized XC60 SUV and S60 sedan, but said we'll see the S90 in 2015, and it will be "stunningly beautiful".
"S90 will be the next model launched on the SPA architecture, it will be a completely new design on that car, but it will have many clues on the front of the vehicle, the new face of the Volvo, you can see here [points at XC90 SUV]."
Volvo executives have previously stated that Mercedes-Benz will not view the S90 as an S-Class rival /news/2014/volvo/volvo-s90-will-be-no-s-class-45666, despite a long-wheel base version being developed for the Chinese and possibly other markets.
Mertens says the S90 design is finished with only the technical and mechanical aspects left to resolve, noting that we could expect "a sneak preview of it probably next year".
Quizzed on plans for the S90's Australian arrival, Mertens was unequivocal: "This is a global product. It will absolutely come to Australia".
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Written byFeann Torr
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If the price does not contain the notation that it is "Drive Away", the price may not include additional costs, such as stamp duty and other government charges.
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