Even the Volvo XC60 SUV is sold out right now.
Is Volvo Cars finally getting noticed by Malaysian luxury car buyers? Are the two main German brands in this segment worried? Well, looking at the past year’s sales figures, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz in Malaysia still command a healthy sales lead over Volvo Cars, however this Swedish car brand should not be ignored by the brand and product marketers from BMW and Benz.
With a strong line-up of popular SUV’s and mushrooming high end dealerships around Malaysia over the past few years, Volvo Cars is ready to be back in the game.
After decades of being rather quiet and un-interesting, Volvo Cars got their much needed ‘break’ when Geely Auto bought the brand, pumped in a lot of funding and revived the Volvo name globally with the launch of the ‘Thor’ inspired XC90luxury SUV in 2014.
Even till today, this 7-year old SUV looks very handsome and has an interior that would easily rival Bentley and Jaguar in fitment, look and quality. But here is the surprising part, the XC90 costs almost 35 percent less of what its rivals are priced at and yet it deliveres similar or better performance and safety features.
Now a major face-lifted XC90 has arrived in Malaysia and with better features and a good nip and tuck around the edges, this XC90 is just one of three best sellers.
There is the XC60 SUV which is also sold out since last month with new deliveries coming in only by August this year. Then there is the recently launched XC40 Recharge which is Volvo’s pre-introduction of an all new electric powered vehicle range in Malaysia.
The XC40 Recharge details start with a twin-engined 1.5 litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol Drive-E engine mated to 7-speed dual-clutch transmission which drives solely the front wheels. Sandwiched between both those things meanwhile is an electric drive motor that is hooked up to 10.7 kWh lithium-ion battery, which is capable of providing a claimed 44 km of pure electric driving range.
While on the topic of facts and figures, the total combined power output of this PHEV powertrain is a healthy 262hp and 425 Nm of torque, with 82hp and 160 Nm of torque generated from the electric motor alone. This thus translates to a reasonably quick 0-100 km/h time of 7.3 seconds and an electronically-limited top speed of 180 km/h, in addition to a CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency figure of just 50 g/km and 2.2 km/l respectively.
This XC40 is now also fully sold out and next batch of vehicles will be arriving also in August 2021, about 4 months away.
The pandemic has created shipping delays and worst, chip shortages which is a vital component for all new high technology vehicles like these Volvo models.
Volvo showrooms nationwide are having to tell eager customers to wait a few months or look at their sedan models like the S60 and S80, but Malaysians like the rest of the world have gone goo-goo for Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV).
