Volvo will stop selling R-badged performance cars after the last 2007 models are sold, the company has stated. “There was a lot of passion from our owners,” executive vice president of sales Doug Speck told Automotive News. “But the investment to make for that side of business, for the return we get, just wasn’t good enough.”
Speck called the move “a hard decision,” but CEO Fredrik Arp made it clear Volvo would still sell performance models, like the C30 T5 and S80 V8.
Arp said the company was working on “the next phase” of performance at Volvo, but there won’t be anything immediate.
Volvo’s last “R” models were the 300 hp S60R and V70R, which were introduced in 2000. Volvo already stated it would not build an “R” version of the new S80-based V70. Volvo’s first “R” car was the 850 R in the mid-1990s.
