Volvo CEO Suggests He Can See a Future Without Station Wagons
It wasn't long ago at all that Volvo quietly cancelled one of its last station wagons still sold in the United States. Now, any newly-designed replacements for the existing lineup of low-slung two-boxes future looks to be in doubt, based on Volvo CEO Jim Rowan's latest comments.
This week, British-based publications Auto Express and Autocar both reported that, when asked whether he could see a future for the brand without its traditional estate cars (station wagons, for us here in the U.S.), Rowan replied in the affirmative. 'Yes, because I think [the market has] changed, right?' he said.
Volvo still offers its lifted Cross Country versions of wagons to those of us stateside with the V60 Cross Country and V90 Cross Country. However, the hot V60 Polestar Engineered just got the axe, and the non-CC version of the V90 has been g0ne for a while. Rowan continued by explaining why wagons are going away.
'It's expensive to bring different models to the market, and it's expensive to keep those models in the market,' he said. 'So we need to make a choice: rather than bring out a [new] V90 for example, are we better to position [the XC60] in a slightly different way?"
"We have the Black Editions, we have the Cross Country editions – we now have different editions of the same base car. It's much, much cheaper, and much more cost effective for us to drive more volume through that same platform and that same form factor.'
In essence, it seems Volvo is betting that folks who traditionally buy its wagons will be content switching to an SUV, instead of simply switching brands. It's a bold stance, considering Volvo ditched both its V60 and V90 models in the U.K. in 2023 before bringing them back this year after realizing there's still customer demand.
Auto Express also talked with chief product and strategy officer Erik Severinson, who suggested Volvo is interested in pursuing more performance models.
'There is always a niche,' Severinson said. 'The sporty family car; there is someone who wants to have the versatility of a family car, but also the performance.'
Volvo is a good chunk of the way there already with some of its EVs: The new ES90 packs a huge 670 horsepower, and the super-tiny EX30 can boogie thanks to 422 horsepower and a 3.4-second 0-60 mph time. These cars aren't Polestar Engineered performance derivatives, but Volvo seems well set-up to take them the rest of the way, considering straight-line performance is abundantly present.
So at least there's a glimmer of hope for fun Volvos to come, among the sadness of its storied wagons likely being left to live out their days as-is. Volvo didn't come out and explicitly say it, but the chances of next-gen V60 and V90 Cross Country variants here in the U.S. look slim after Rowan's comments. The two lifted longroofs are still on sale today, though, so Volvo wagon devotees should get after them while they're around.
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