- Change in product plans has Volvo prioritizing new Golf-size car over an XC90 SUV replacement.
- The new model will be based on the current Ford Focus-derived S40 sedan and C30 coupe platform architecture.
- Last year Volvo sold 335,000 cars globally, but capacity was 500,000.
GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Volvo has reshuffled its product plans and will launch a new Golf-size five-door hatchback for 2012. The new model, based on the current Ford Focus-derived S40 sedan and C30 coupe platform architecture, takes precedence over a replacement for the XC90 SUV and has been initiated by new CEO Stefan Jacoby.
Although less important in the U.S., hatchbacks of this kind are the most popular vehicle body style in Europe, making this new model vital to Jacoby's aim of reversing Volvo's recent sales decline.
Last year the company sold 335,000 cars globally — it has the capacity for 500,000 — but Jacoby says: "I believe a vision of 800,000 cars a year in 10 years' time is achievable. We are putting together a strategy over the next six months to see how we can grow not only in emerging countries like China, but also in our established markets in Europe and the U.S. We are working on a product strategy and we have opportunities to get leaner. As a relatively small car company we can move quickly. Being lean is the only way to compete against the giants."
Jacoby believes that China will account for around 30 percent of that 800,000 and says that the location of the company's planned new Chinese factory — and it'll be one plant rather than the three that have been rumored — is still being determined.
Jacoby is also redefining Volvo's brand image, saying: "We need to focus on luxury. I don't believe in the word 'premium.' It sounds like you are making people pay for something they do not necessarily get. Volvo has lost its distinguishing points as a product. You can immediately recognize you are sitting in a BMW or an Audi, for example, and I don't think Volvo is there yet.
"The first project is to define what the brand stands for. In the Volkswagen Group [Jacoby previously headed up Volkswagen of America], everyone knew what each individual brand meant. Volvo at the moment is not sharp enough or in harmony with what the brand stands for. It needs to return to its Swedish roots. Not so much sporty but more functional with Swedish/Scandinavian elegance — different from, say, Jaguar or Bentley. The new S60 is very good dynamically and shows what we can do, but is it where we need to be? If I am looking at role models from the current range, then XC60 is what Volvo is all about and the C30 is fantastic. It has great potential and a very attractive design."
So, expect to see the new Golf rival include styling influences from the C30, as well as a new face for Volvo. "A new face is something we are looking at. We need a more distinguishing front end, and this will be the first step in our new models," says Jacoby.
As for styling, he reckons that "simplicity is the key. We need to stop copying the Germans. We should express what Scandinavia stands for — high values for human beings, strong social security and welfare. We don't have to be the same size or have the same package." Jacoby would like to see the simple, elegant functionality of Apple products in Volvos. "My dream is to have a car without a handbook. You look at some of these, particularly in some premium cars, and they are as big as a Bible. Maybe there is too much technology and not enough aimed at the human interface."
Also up for a rethink is Volvo's platform strategy. "We're questioning this now, and doing a health check with R&D. We may come down to just two, or even one platform. All options are open, as are potential partnerships with other companies. You see this all the time. We just have to ensure we keep our own identity."
As far as engines are concerned, Jacoby considers them a "core competence." A new, modular family of gasoline and diesel engines is being developed, while V8s will be dropped and possibly even sixes, too, in favor of downsized fours and possibly fives.
EVs and hybrids are to be a "major pillar" of Volvo's future too, hence the 1,000 C30 EVS to be trialed shortly in Europe, and the plug-in hybrid V70 coming in 2012 that records just 50g/km of CO2. And safety will continue to be a Volvo brand pillar.
But the new Mercedes S-Class-rival Volvo limousine talked of by Geely boss Li Shufu, Jacoby says, "is a step too early. Ask us after we have reached our goal of 800,000 sales."
Next week, Jacoby and Volvo will be developing a new strategy for the U.S. market, where sales fell to 61,000 cars last year. "They were 130,000 not so long ago," says Jacoby, adding that there is "no golden key to heaven. It's a tough, competitive transparent market."
"But I believe in three rules. First you need consistency and sustainability. Don't step in and out with currency fluctuations — you can't let the dealers dry out. In the U.S., it's the dealers who decide which cars go in showrooms, which personnel meet the customer and so on.
"Second, we need to considerably reduce the number of variants on offer — to be more simple, start from scratch and do it right.
"And third, we need to focus in all areas, but especially the dealers. The majority are not putting enough effort into the Volvo brand, because they're not making enough money out of the franchise."
Inside Line says: A Golf-rivaling Volvo should help Volvo in Europe, but whether Jacoby's reconfiguring of the brand image will help the marque enough remains to be seen. — Richard Bremner, Correspondent
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qdp says:
05:25 PM, 10/18/2010
@juntinlink:
Wikipedia 2nd generation(2004 to present) s40: "The chassis for this car and the majority of its components were developed by Volvo, however similar mechanical components can be found in the Mazda3 and the European Ford Focus", and 5cylinder engines and transmissions were developed by Volvo
Wikipedia Focus: "The Mk 2, codenamed C307, uses the Ford C1 platform which is shared with the Volvo S40, V50 and C70, Mazda3 and Focus C-MAX. Ford calls this platform sharing programme 'Global Shared Technologies'".
First, s40 was Not Based On Focus Platform;instead based on C1 platform. Secondly, the platform is more a product products devolopment concept than literarily physical things. For instancer, in a compact car platform, there are deverent HP engines, defferent chassises, brack systems, different grades of material(as you mentioned)..etc., so realistically a premium compact car and eco-box compact car may share very little in common though they are all in the same compact platform. This is what the first Wikipedia quotation mean. In a sense, the group of c30,s40,v50,and c70 may share majority in components while the group share very little with Focus, except door handles and steering wheel and the like.
Say it again: those comments saying s40 is based on Focus platform are Simply Untrue and with no integrity.
toxic_science says:
01:06 PM, 10/18/2010
Oh, I almost forgot the definition of inane:
in·ane Adjective /iżnżn/
Synonyms:
adjective: vacuous, empty, senseless, blank, foolish, vacant, hollow, void, meaningless
noun: vacuum, void, vacancy, emptiness
Silly; stupid
USAGE: Don't constantly badger people with inane ideas
toxic_science says:
01:03 PM, 10/18/2010
@QDP
I'm not sure where you got that Ford is losing market share in Europe. But here's the 2009 ACEA report stating that Ford is the 3rd best selling manufacturer and it's market share increased 2% to 10.3% from 2008 to 2009 with ~ 1.5 million cars sold (2010 data not available yet):
The top car manufacturing groups in Europe (EU plus EFTA) in 2009 according to the ACEA were:
Manufacturing Group ... No of Cars Sold in 2009 ... % Market Share ... % Change from 2008
VW ... 3,062,774 ... 21.1 ... +0.7
PSA ... 1,865,263 ... 12.9 ... -0.0
Ford ... 1,486,338 ... 10.3 ... +2.0
Renault ... 1,335,766 ... 9.2 ... +3.9
GM ... 1,284,283 ... 8.9 ... -8.7
Fiat ... 1,254,829 ... 8.7 ... +6.3
Toyota ... 730,831 ... 5.0 ... -4.7
BMW ... 708,109 ... 4.9 ... -13.6
Daimler ... 689,177 ... 4.8 ... -13.0
Nissan ... 366,711 ... 2.5 ... +9.0
As for sharing the same platform, this quote is from a 2005 article which lauded the idea that volvo, ford, and mazda could share the same platform but generate such different vehicles:
"Ford Motor Company created two very different vehicles with the Mazda3, and second-generation Volvo S40, which share the same basic Volvo platform, says Jim Sanfilippo, exec VP at Omnicom Group-owned auto consultant AMCI. He calls the results 'brilliant.'
In addition, the Ford-branded Focus sold in Europe shares the same underpinnings as the Mazda and Volvo, says George Peterson, president of AutoPacific, who also lauds the results. 'These are three unique and distinctive cars.'"
Please, at least, use google before making some inane comment that has no factual basis.
justinlink says:
11:18 AM, 10/18/2010
@qdp
Your continued rants regarding the impossibility of Volvo sharing a platform with the likes of Ford and Mazda are like shouting into the wind. If you still need some convincing, check wikipedia. The Volvo C30, C70, S40, and V50 are all based on the same chassis platform as the european ford focus (not the same as the US, although it will be) and the Mazda 3. The only difference is the extensive usage of various grades of steel in the frame, the AWD implementations you mentioned, and various other heavy materials (sound dampening, whiplash protected seats, sound systems, etc) that Volvo uses which drastically increases the curb weights of its vehicles.
As for the rest of this article, I can see Volvo dropping the (redundant) V8, but I can't imagine they'd lose the I6. Adding direct injection would make the straight six a more efficient engine will maintaining the premium (err, luxury) image Jacoby is going for.
juan_mx says:
06:12 AM, 10/18/2010
The C30 is already a 3-door Golf rival in Europe (both have a base engine of 1.6L there) .
The C30 it is a 3-door only, so they needed the 5-door to compete with the 5-door Golf.
qdp says:
04:56 PM, 10/15/2010
@3zooms
You still use imagination to reason your way through, rather than based on technical data. S40's plateform can be equipe with AWD for wagon, which,weight-wise, is far more demanding than any Focus could. In short, business decision is based economics instead of just for convenience of sharing plateform
In any technical sense, Focus is the low-end, very so-so quality car. People buy it no because of how good it is, but because Americans support domestic auto manufacturers. In Europ, both Ford and GM has been losing money and market share for decades.
usarmy414 says:
04:39 PM, 10/15/2010
I like what Mr. Jacoby has to say. Volvo will not succeed aping the Germans. Swedish cars are about safety, comfort and long term durability. I believe there's still a market for a superior car that does what almost all drivers need almost all of the time. For an enthusiast this seems like a far better family vehicle than an SUV.
qdp says:
04:38 PM, 10/15/2010
Here are some people who always habitually ignorantly relate any other brands, esp. Luxury brands, to Focus, Fusion,or Civic. They have no resptectfull sense of classiness but psychical propensity towars ragtag egostical indulgence
3zooms says:
04:34 PM, 10/15/2010
well, said, jstandefer!
You explained it better than I did... lol
Not sure why your post wasn't there when I wrote my rambling post?!
3zooms says:
04:30 PM, 10/15/2010
qdp,
- A couple of possibilities that aren't detailed in this article: The current (2010 & 2011) U.S. spec Focus is indeed 2600-ish lbs... BUT, it is the same old platform that was introduced to the world back around the turn of the century (like 1999)! Throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world; there was a second generation of the Ford Focus that never came to the North American Market... - so, perhaps the Volvo S40 & V50.. (which; the new 2010 & 2011 models themselves are old, not having changed since around 2004... & I remember back then hearing that they were related to the Focus [Mazda3, too]) ...are built on this 2nd generation Focus? - Or, this proposed 2012 Volvo Golf-like hatchback & it's S40 & V50 stablemates, will be built on the brand-spanking new 2012 Focus that is being introduced all around the world & will be coming to North America (finally) in the first or second quarter of 2011...
Subaru has made remarkably different Imprezas and Legacys and Outbacks and Foresters on the base of the same platform over the years, it would not surprise me that Ford & other companies would be able to do the same for their product lines....