Volvo is an SUV brand now... but the wagons are safe!

It would be safe for us to define Volvo as an SUV brand nowadays.

The vast majority of its sales are in that category, and its biggest product launch in some time – the new EX30 – is unmistakably crossover shaped. We’re delighted to report that its wagons remain safe, though.

“Volvo is not a company that disregards it heritage,” affirms its head of global offer, Warren Davidson. “SUVs are extremely important to us, but they’re not the only part of what we do. We’ve done beautiful wagons for years.”

The scalable Geely platforms sitting under its latest cars allow both the flexibility and economies of scale to keep the kind of cars we love safe. Expect a fully electric estate in the not too distant future, too. “Without being specific about future products, I’m really excited,” grins Warren.

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"The family car is an SUV in most places in the world and Volvo is a family brand.”

“We are famous for our wagons, but it’s mainly Europe that buys them,” adds head of strategy Erik Severinson. Thankfully Sweden is an especially receptive market. “We do think there is customer demand for wagons and we have a strong heritage for them. Some of our competitors have moved away from this kind of car, but we still see a strong market for it.”

It's worth noting too that right now, Volvo's Australian line-up has only one wagon on offer, and even that's a jacked-up SUV type: the V60 Cross Country. No more regular V60 (or V90 for that matter).

The economies of scale that will bring future Volvo estates are also what’s given the EX30 a tantalising entry price. “The EX30 will bring a lot of people into a Volvo for the first time, and maybe they can grow up through our size of vehicles,” says Erik.

But does it have to be an SUV to achieve that reach? “Generally, SUVs are the big sales trend. The family car is an SUV in most places in the world and Volvo is a family brand.”

That means reframing the wild 3.6-second 0-100km/h time of the top-spec EX30 Twin Motor, too.

“We need to rethink the word ‘performance’,” Erik continues.

“We have amazing acceleration in an EV that’s small and light. But if performance also encompasses other things – top speed, sharp handling – this is not a performance car. Polestar is positioned to a different customer who looks at acceleration alongside other factors.

"But this is a true Volvo. Acceleration is important from a safety point of view for quickly overtaking another car. We don’t see it as contradictory to our safety heritage.” Or its limited top speeds…

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Volvo EX30 Cross Country

“A Volvo is a family car. We care about people, the planet and personal mobility. We don’t have performance in our purpose, in that sense."

So does the existence of Polestar allow Volvos to be more, well, ‘Volvo’? “Yeah, I think so,” says Erik.

“A Volvo is a family car. We care about people, the planet and personal mobility. We don’t have performance in our purpose, in that sense. Polestar offer a different thing. We can be more ‘Volvo’ if we’re not focusing on those customers.”

Both men are delighted that Australia is forging ahead with a fully electric Volvo range four years ahead of its 2030 global target, too.

“Where we have an opportunity to go fully electric sooner, we will do that,” says Erik. “We’d rather do the shift quicker where we can. In all aspects, an electric car is a better car. Faster, cleaner, more sustainable. It’s just range anxiety in peoples’ minds you need to win over.

"We see very few people try an electric car and then go back to combustion.”