Photo: Volvo
In Australia, both Ford and Holden (GM) will import Chinese-made vehicles by the time Aussie plants will shut down in the near future. But that's a sad story of cost cutting and globalization, completely different in nature to what Volvo has in store for next year.
Speaking to AutomotiveNews at a recent press event in Stockholm, Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson has declared that the S60L will hit Stateside dealerships in 2015. As the name implies, the S60L is the long-wheelbase variant of the S60 sedan. Even though the main difference consists of just a few inches of extra legroom, the S60L is expected to sell well in the U.S.
Mind you, the S60 is the marque's best-selling model in the States. Furthermore, shipping and import costs from China to the United States aren't as expensive as doing the same thing from Sweden, or so says the Scandinavian manufacturer's CEO. The compact executive car in LWB guise starts from 269,000 yuans ($43,900 at current exchange rates), which is a tad more than the US-spec S60 T6 Drive-E FWD, but hey, you're getting 8 centimeters of extra space.
Of course, we expect the Volvo S60L to hold a higher sticker price when it'll come here, but there are other grand things to expect in the near future from the Swedish automaker. First there's the XC90 mid-size luxury SUV, of which all 1,927 First Edition examples sold out in just 47 hours. Then there's the S80's replacement. Mr. Samuelsson told the new model will be a "big step forward."
We expect a number of improvements compared to the outgoing model, including a cabin design inspired by the second-generation XC90 and that it will ride on Volvo's new SPA modular platform. In a recent interview with the American media, Mr. Samuelsson said that the S90 (they'll drop the S80 nameplate) will be launched after Spring 2015. Fingers crossed we'll see the S90 in the flesh later next year.
Mind you, the S60 is the marque's best-selling model in the States. Furthermore, shipping and import costs from China to the United States aren't as expensive as doing the same thing from Sweden, or so says the Scandinavian manufacturer's CEO. The compact executive car in LWB guise starts from 269,000 yuans ($43,900 at current exchange rates), which is a tad more than the US-spec S60 T6 Drive-E FWD, but hey, you're getting 8 centimeters of extra space.
Of course, we expect the Volvo S60L to hold a higher sticker price when it'll come here, but there are other grand things to expect in the near future from the Swedish automaker. First there's the XC90 mid-size luxury SUV, of which all 1,927 First Edition examples sold out in just 47 hours. Then there's the S80's replacement. Mr. Samuelsson told the new model will be a "big step forward."
We expect a number of improvements compared to the outgoing model, including a cabin design inspired by the second-generation XC90 and that it will ride on Volvo's new SPA modular platform. In a recent interview with the American media, Mr. Samuelsson said that the S90 (they'll drop the S80 nameplate) will be launched after Spring 2015. Fingers crossed we'll see the S90 in the flesh later next year.
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