Volvo planning dual wagon attack
Swedish brand’s V60 wagon and V60 Cross Country both headed Down UnderHaving debated whether to sell the new Volvo V60 wagon or its crossover spin-off, the V60 Cross Country, Volvo has decided it will launch both models in Australia.
The Volvo V60 will be on sale here by September and the Cross Country should get to Australia in 2020.
You can read our first drive of the latest Volvo V60 here and a brief sampling of the V60 Cross Country here.
The V60 will be sold in Australia in petrol T5 AWD form, while there appears to be some conjecture within VCA about whether the Cross Country will be offered with the same drivetrain or as a D4 turbo-diesel.
Once they are both on sale Volvo Car Australia is also pondering offering the V60 only as the high-performance petrol-electric T8 Engineered by Polestar plug-in hybrid model, making the two wagons as distinctly different as possible.
Neither the V60 Cross Country and its bigger brother, the V90 Cross Country, are available with the T8 drivetrain because of a technical issue fitting the recharging plug.
“That for me would be an ideal line-up,” Volvo Car Australia managing director Nick Connor told carsales.com.au.
“You have got someone who wants a performance wagon with everything they want, including the environmental credentials you get with the T8.
“And then you’d have a diesel V60 Cross Country.”
The V60 Cross Country is the successor to one of Volvo’s most consistently popular models, the XC70, which first appeared in Australian in 1997. VCA’s view is it has a readymade audience.
Volvo’s passenger wagon history dates much further back of course, but the demands for such vehicles is tiny in Australia.
However, Connor said there was an opportunity to potentially gather sales for the V60 from wagon buyers becoming “bored” with SUVs.
“I think there is an opportunity to say to people ‘do you want to be a little bit different from your neighbours, here’s something that will help you stand out a bit’.
“There is an opportunity worth going after and I think if anyone is going to do it it’s Volvo because it has the heritage.”
He also nominated owners of the Volkswagen Passat Alltrack and Subaru Outback as potential customers who could be lured across the price divide into the Volvo wagon.
“We are looking at ways to position the V60 in such a way to draw people up from the semi-premium brands,” Collins said.
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