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Recasting the whole concept of luxury driving
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With the launch of its new flagship SUV XC90 last week, Volvo is shifting its image from that of a staid carmaker whose products may be reliable but aren’t necessarily the talk of the town.
The XC90’s carries a price range of between 798,000 yuan (US$128,557) and 1,017,800 yuan, about twice Volvo’s usual sticker range. In product, too, Volvo is plowing new ground by challenging Chinese consumers to rethink their definition of luxury driving.
Its trump card is an advanced 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine called Drive-E T6. Running on turbo as well as a supercharger, it can match the performance of six-cylinder engines with a maximum output of 235kW and a torque of 400 Nm. It also boasts of the highest power per liter in the segment at 117.5 kilowatts per liter, and the lowest fuel consumption at 8.5l liters per 100 kilometers.
Still, it seems quite a wild card to be playing in a market that is supposed to be moving toward large displacement engines.
“In the past, consumers thought the level of luxury went up with the number of cylinders and liters,” said Fu Qiang, president and CEO of Volvo Cars’ sales company in China. “But smaller and lighter is the direction of engine technologies,”
It may take time for consumers to buy into this trend, but Volvo wants to be fully prepared for the turning point. Drive-E T6 is one of eight options in a big, intelligent engine family called Drive-E. As a power source for the whole Volvo line-up going forward, it covers all the mainstream fuel-efficiency solutions, like direct-injection, turbocharging, supercharging and electrification.
The market segment where XC90 is designed to compete is not a key focus of industry growth at present. The momentum in China’s SUV boom is being driven by much smaller offers. But this car obviously means a lot to Volvo, more at the brand level than in the sense of volume sales.
Volvo’s Scandinavian heritage and design strategy well capture the philosophy of less is more, which seemingly contradicts the idea of luxury. Even in a top-ranging car like XC90, the interior design has the kind of simple Scandinavian style that made Ikea furniture so popular.
Luxury has long been based, to some extent, on overstated superficiality. What Volvo wants to introduce is a way to feel rich inside, said Fu.
The XC90 has indeed a lot to brag about despite the brand’s reputation for understated luxury.
It is the first mass-production model to be equipped with highly automated driving functions, a true step closer to the autonomous driving of the future. At speeds lower than 50 kilometers an hour, the car can follow a lane, keep proper distance and steer by itself at the command of Pilot Assist.
With some of the driving chores reduced, a motorist can play with what is hailed as the most intuitive human-machine interface in a car. Speech recognition comes with a large table-like central touchscreen, whose unconventional vertical placement is designed to reduce scrolling.
Or drivers can indulge themselves with music from a Bowers & Wilkins system that promises the same sound quality as the Gothenburg Concert Hall in Sweden.
Given its specs, XC90 is competitively priced, Fu said. However, it could be a hard story for dealerships to sell.
“We need to spend more time telling people what luxury is,” said Fu, who didn’t express much concern about how the new model will be received by consumers. “Volvo always has an appeal for the intellectual elites, the knowledgeable rich group that is the richest of the rich,” he said.
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