Volvo News: Volvo Determined To Go Upmarket

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

September 16, 2013

Volvo Cars' CEO says that the next-generation of vehicles will be much higher than the models currently sitting in showrooms today.

"The new vehicles will be more expensive," said Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson to Automotive News.

Samuelsson says that he is not happy with Volvo's current position in the U.S. and thinks its time for a change in their strategy.

"I think the company has no future if we are targeting mass market products. The new vehicles will be more expensive, but only if they deliver something the customer finds attractive," said Samuelsson.

"Nothing will be excluded. It is fair to say I am not very satisfied. We have to come back in the U.S. market."

The first vehicle that will see a price hike is the upcoming XC90, due sometime next year.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[David]

This will be interesting to watch as they need to keep current prices to keep what customers they do have but also grow other market niches and that could be by going downstream and upstream. Not sure if upstream is really the best place for them so if the XC90 is to be a new more expensive luxury product. Be interesting to see how they achieve it and what the marketing message ends up being.

Either a savior move for them or self destruction. So this is an interesting soap opera to watch!

[Drew Dowdell]

The problem is that they muddled their name lineup. The S60 came down market and down in size into S40 territory and they canceled the S40. The S80 did the same thing.

They need a new S40 that can run with the A4 and C-Class and the S60 needs to go back up to CTS/A6/E-Class size.

Starting with the XC90 is the wrong move for this strategy. Do what Cadillac is doing, make the entry car so good that even the Audi/BMW humpers will have to grit their teeth and admit it is a real challenger, then move up the rest of the line.

[David]

Great point Drew, they should start at the bottom and build up rather than from the top down. But then China thinks it can build everything from the top down.

My gut has me thinking Volvo will be the next car company to go into the history books as the market indicators are all showing we are looking at a China collapse in the next year or two. Goldman and B of A just dumped all their holdings in China Banks, interbank rates are sky high and last quarter was just a rumble of the billions to be written down or off and I suspect at the end of September the rumbles will become even bigger. Insurance has jumped big time and rates are upside down.

My gut tells me Chine will implode and follow our own 4 year depression and companies that are bank rolled by air money will go away.

Honestly I can see the world with no Volvo in it.

[TPhoenix]

I really hope Volvo is not getting into more than they can bargain for. I mean I understand they want to build their car brand, but if they're going to raise the price for their cars that people have not been buying often enough, isn't that digging themselves a grave?