Volvo’s cars have made little headway in India so far. Which is odd, because they are really nice
Gothenburg is not a culinary hub by any stretch of imagination; unlike the Danish capital Copenhagen not so far away from the Swedish city. But it is a city where I possibly had one of the best meals I have eaten. Travelling to the city three months after SK Mat & Manniskor won a Michelin and I had an utterly surprising meal, mainly because you expect Swedish food to really be meatballs and more meatballs.
And some fish on the side. But Sweden is a surprising place, and much like the food surprised me, the cars at Volvo did too. Volvo has been in the car-making business for around 90 years. The company started out because its founders felt that cars from continental Europe and America were not tough enough for Scandinavia’s country roads and extreme winters.
Volvos were always built tough; they acquired a reputation for being world leaders in safety. The old Volvo 240 was not only the epitome of angular design (they would have installed square wheels if that had been possible) but also had a well-deserved reputation for safety. It was a Volvo employee, Nils Bohlin, who had in 1959 invented the modern three-point seatbelt, an invention that has saved possibly millions of lives in the past half-century. And while Volvo has the first company to use the technology, they just gave it away. No cost. For the entire industry to use it.
This is a carmaker whose headquarters houses a “crash lab”; a state-of-the-art facility which allows the carmaker to replicate real-world crashes. Because, believe this or not, Volvo actually studies every single Swedish accident its vehicles are involved in. There is almost a fanatical devotion to safety, and the company stated to me during my visit last year that they wanted to eliminate deaths of any occupant of a Volvo car by 2020.
New sensors on their latest cars can even figure out if the car is headed towards an accident and actually activate protection systems. And the fanaticism moves towards pedestrians as well, car hoods with airbags for example. And thanks to Sweden’s rather more controlled environment, the carmaker is also experimenting with autonomous technology and plans to have a fleet of autonomous Volvo XC90s operating in and around Gothenburg by 2017.
But all this does not come cheap and Volvo Cars is currently owned by Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely, who bought the company from Ford in 2010 who themselves had acquired the carmaker in 1999. Volvo executives today feel Ford’s confused strategy at Volvo because they also owned Jaguar land Rover (JlR). This was despite the success of the first-generation Volvo XC90 manufactured in that period. Ford, in fact, sold Volvo for a loss of two-thirds of the amount they invested, if depreciation is accounted for. Ford lost close to 90 per cent of what they had invested.
The new management has been able to script a turnaround, which albeit much less dramatic than that of JlR, has been rather successful. One reason for the success is a more coherent model plan. Volvo’s new model plan is going to be based around a small car, the 40-series; a medium car, the 60-series and a large car, the 90-series. The small car is being developed alongside Geely, and the bigger cars are a Swedish project. The first “new” product was the second-generation XC90, more about which in a bit, and the new S90 sedan which is coming up soon (replacing the outgoing S80). But in a couple of years, Volvo’s entire line-up from the V40 hatchback to the XC60 and S60 would also be changed.
Yet, in a very Swedish sort of way, Volvo has played around with the S60 sedan, and raised it off the ground. In effect, they have created the sedan version of an SUV, and they call it the S60 Cross-Country. On the back roads, where the road surface is questionable, it is a very nice car. It is a luxury sedan, is spacious and has all the features one would expect in a car of that class. The interior, particularly the infotainment system, does feel a bit dated, but the S60CC is currently priced very attractively around 40 lakh rupees.
The S60CC does turn heads but the Volvo car that really commands attention is the new XC90. The previous XC90 was known as a practical three-row car and the new one keeps up the trend but with an attractive look and amazing interiors. Volvo is not just safety conscious, they also resolved to reduce the number of buttons on the central console. The old Volvo console as seen on the S60CC has a very attractive “waterfall” look to it but has too many controls. So Volvo has installed an iPad sort of controller in the central console. Everything can be done from this console, from air-conditioning controls to music and maps. Only Audi’s excellent MMI system with the virtual cockpit is in the same league.
The XC90 also has another aspect of Volvo’s rather comprehensive new philosophy, they have moved to two simple engine types, one in petrol and one in diesel. And these simple engines they feel do not have to be huge behemoths, Volvo is ceding the performance car market to the likes of Mercedes AMG, but this also means that the XC90’s turbo-charged diesel is under two litres in capacity allowing the car to be legally sold in the NCR.
It is, therefore, the only large diesel-powered SUV that can be sold here. And it is large. In terms of space, it matches up to the new Audi Q7 easily, because it does go head-to-head with that vehicle. And the two cars are also fairly evenly matched on the price-front with the XC90 costing between Rs 75-85 lakh depending on the variant (we tested the premium ‘Inscription’ version). The XC90 is unbelievably practical. Yes, you do feel that it could do with more power — and Volvo India does eventually plan to bring the petrol-electric hybrid T8.
But Volvos are not about absolute performance. The XC90 scores in so many areas. For example, it has a superb audio system where the sound can be made to sound like the Gothenburg Concert Hall. The rear-seat comfort and the practicality of the controls are fabulous. This car has been thought out with users other than the driver in mind. After spending a few days with the car, you actually felt bad to give it back. I’m actually waiting for subsequent Volvos in the Indian market. They may not have the brand equity of their rivals, but the cars, the cars are what matter after all, are really nice, unexpectedly so. Much like Gothenburg actually.