A TOP-selling car brand has killed off its biggest estate for good to make way for the rise of the SUV.
Discontinuation of these cars comes nearly 30 years after it was first introduced in 1997.
The estates have been central to the brand since the 1950s[/caption]
The V90 are available with either a T6 engine or T8 engine[/caption]
They packed between 345 and 449bhp[/caption]
Volvo’s iconic V90 estate will no longer be produced by the brand’s facility in Gothenburg.
The announcement follows a backtrack on the Swedish carmaker’s decision to axe estates, as well as all its saloons, in 2023.
Following the Covid pandemic, sales of Volvo’s V60 and V90 estates saw a decline.
Only five to ten per cent of the brand’s customer base were gravitating towards these cars.
But public outcry came when the carmaker said they would axe the two estates.
Volvo’s sales boss even admitted discontinuing the two beloved models was a “big mistake”.
Robert Deane, commercial operations director at Volvo Car UK, has admitted the decision had driven customers to other car makers.
He told Auto Express: “When you tell a retail customer [estates] aren’t offered, they go off and buy someone else’s.”
A “resurgence” in demand for estates therefore encouraged Volvo to continue their production.
The smaller V60 and V90 then returned to showrooms – from £41,370 and £59,280 respectively.
The V90 struggled though – just under 7,000 were sold, comprising just over one per cent of the carmaker’s total global sales this year.
Volvo simultaneously sold almost 23,000 XC40s YTD in the UK alone, which was just under half their total UK sales figures.
A spokesperson for Volvo Cars UK told TopGear the decisions to terminate the V90 is “in accordance with Volvo Cars’ global cycle plan”.
So it does not appear to be just a panic move from the Swedish company.
The smaller V60 estate will also continue to be sold, available in both mid hybrid and plug-in hybrid forms.
But given that the average lifespan of a model is around seven to 10 years, experts pointed out they are unlikely to make it beyond the 2030 cut-off.
Final lines of the Volvo V90 can be expected to now just show in the new World of Volvo museum in Gothenburg.
Axing of the V90 estate comes after the iconic car brand announced it will bring back one of its hybrid SUV’s from nearly a decade ago earlier this year.
The Volvo XC70 is coming back with a bang after being discontinued in 2016.
The new model is said to be slightly larger and offer more space than the similar XC60.
