Volvo is confident it’s next generation of cars will help its quest to move further upmarket. Speaking to Autocar India at a Volvo event in Beijing, Feng Shen, VP of R&D at Volvo Cars China said the firm is making a concentrated effort to enhance luxury. “After the acquisition of Volvo, Geely Chairman Li Shufu emphasised the need for luxury. Looking at today’s Volvo car’s interior design, there is room to improve but the SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) is the answer to that,” he added.
The SPA platform will underpin a new generation of Volvos including (in order of launch) the next XC90, S80, S60 and XC60. Volvo is also developing another platform with Chinese owner Geely that will form the basis of smaller cars to come.
The new cars will conform to Volvo’s edgier design language as seen on the trio of concepts, namely the Concept Coupé, Concept XC Coupé and the Concept Estate shown over the past year. Another major area of focus will be the cabins with Volvo’s VP of design Thomas Ingenlath intent to bring a lot more ‘Scandanavian luxury’ to the interiors. An Apple-developed touchscreen will be the centerpiece of the dashboard and other luxurious details like a crystal gear knob and diamond-cut glass buttons on the dashboard will be standard too.
The strategy to go more premium should help Volvo, particularly in image conscious emerging markets that will contribute to a majority of sales in the years to come. In fact, China has surpassed USA to become Volvo’s biggest single market in terms of volume. Volvo India too has set itself an ambitious target of 12-15 percent market share in the premium segment by 2020 and is betting on its next generation models to help achieve that.
NIKHIL BHATIA
Suraj Viswanathan
Dipan Sur
Lenny D'sa
Viraaj Bhatnagar
Ameya Dandekar
Rivan RS 
