The Volvo brand has endured a lot in the past couple years, including an ownership swap that took the Swedish automaker from the grasp of Ford to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group – but they are far from done.
Among the first changes to come to U.S. shores will be an all-new XC90, which Volvo Cars of North America CEO Doug Speck confirmed with Automotive News, along with details about the planned move towards the luxury market in the U.S.
In discussing the brand’s sales volume goals, as well as its future product strategy, Speck revealed that despite the XC90′s struggles that led to a massive $3,200 price cut, the automaker plans to bring an all-new version of the vehicle to market for the U.S. Speck explained that the XC90 will play a crucial, but secondary role in delivering key aspects of the brand’s volume goals, behind the S60 and XC60.
Beyond talk of the XC90, Speck also went into detail concerning several other key aspects of the future of Volvo, including desired volume goals, market placement and product cadence. Volvo sold 54,500 cars last year, but Speck is hoping for 60,000-70,000 this year, and is relying on S60 sales to get there. In fact, Speck predicted to sell as many as 10 times the number of S60s, which would mean as high as 20,000 units sold in 2011.
Speck also discussed Volvo’s competition and pointed out that the latest Volvo products are being cross-shopped with luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes, including the S60 sedan. Moving forward, Volvo intends to stay true to its product schedule with refreshes every three years or so, and total redesigns every six to seven years.
References
1.’Volvo’s Speck…’ view
