Volvo believes its future 3rd new vehicle for the XC lineup, the XC40, will be a landmark for the company, as it wants to sell significantly more SUVs by 2020. The Swedish manufacturer expects to sell nearly 100,000 units annually of its smallest crossover, when it arrives on the market in the first half of 2018.
In 2015 Volvo delivered 503,127 cars globally with around 267,000 of them being XC and Cross Country models or, in other words, SUVs and crossovers. This means more than 50% of the automaker’s sales already belong to those two segments and that number is about to grow in the next years.
The best-seller for the company currently is the ageing XC60, which has been on the market for around 8-years. In the first 6-months of this year, the flagship XC90 has also registered a healthy increase in sales with 51,810 cars delivered, pointing to 12-month sales of more than 100,000 units.
Given the importance of SUV models for the brand, the XC40, previewed by the 40.1 concept, will be the first to be revealed from the 40 series, which will also include a hatchback and a station wagon. The cars will be based on the company’s new CMA modular platform, which is smaller than the SPA architecture used in the XC90, S90, and V90.
