Volvo kills saloons and estates in the UK
It’s a sad, sad day for us here at Goodwood Road & Racing, as we read on Autocar with a tear in our eyes that the Volvo S60, V60, V90 and both respective Cross Country models, are to imminently go off sale. This is latest decisive leg in what Volvo calls a ‘consolidation’ of its range, following the recent departure of its S90 saloon. When all is said and done, saloons and estates will be gone from Volvo’s range, leaving only SUVs and crossovers.
Happily, the C40, XC40, XC60 and XC90 are great cars, with the EX30 all-electric SUV and EX90 flagship looking mighty promising themselves, being due for arrival later this year and next year respectively. The XC60 being the next in line for replacement after the XC90, should get an all-electric EX-badged follow-up in 2026, in the run-up to 2030, when Volvo’s entire range should be electric-only.
So what’s motivated the chop? In part, it’s this moment of transformation the entire industry is going through. Volvo is reinventing itself, preparing new platforms and upgrading its manufacturing infrastructure to produce them.
On the other hand, it’s good old fashioned sales figures. The numbers don’t lie and are the reason these cars are the last of their line, rather than giving way to successors. The S90 was Volvo’s most popular saloon, as reported by Autocar, selling 23,000 examples over the course of the first six months of 2023. That’s still a fifth of what Volvo’s best-selling XC60 did in the same period. So the S60, V60 and V90 that sold just 18,000, 16,000 and 7,100 units within the same six-month period didn’t really stand a chance.
“We continue to rapidly transform our product offer, which means not only moving towards full electrification, but also shifting to new platforms and technologies across all our cars,” a Volvo spokesperson told Autocar.
"We will naturally need to evolve and consolidate our line-up as we prioritise fully electric cars and make this technological transition.
"As a result, we have removed further models from the UK line-up. These include the S60, V60 and V90. Demand for our existing SUV line-up continues to grow, while interest in our forthcoming fully electric EX30 and EX90 models is strong. Meanwhile, appetite for our saloon and estate models has fallen to very low levels in the UK, which has led to our decision to remove these models from sale in the UK.”
Reading between the lines, we can also see a slight change in terms of the mood of what’s offered. Where Volvo used to encapsulate the family cars and the somewhat lustier offerings, it can now afford to leave the coupes and saloons to sibling Polestar, which is set to introduce its Polestar 5 super saloon and Polestar 6 roadster in the coming years.
Even they are to follow only after the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 crossovers are on sale, doing the numbers. That said, should the demand return, the eventual return of traditional saloons and estates in the electrified era hasn’t been ruled out.
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