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Volvo’s US CEO: Cross Countries and EVs and Small Cars, Oh My

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Volvo Concept 40.1 and 40.2

Lex Kerssemakers, president and CEO of Volvo Cars USA, confirmed that future plans for the brand in the United States include EVs, a proliferation of its Cross Country vehicle lineup, and absolutely no diesel engines.


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Speaking with MotorTrend, Kerssemakers and members of his executive team reaffirmed that it intends to launch its first EV in 2019 and is anticipating EVs to make up 10% of its sales by 2020 with numbers meeting or exceeding 1 million units by 2025. While the vehicle type is as yet unknown—a crossover or hatchback would probably be safe bets—it is known that the first EV will be built on the Scalable Product Architecture upon which the award-winning next-gen Volvo XC90 is built, with subsequent EVs built on Volvo’s Compact Modular Architecture.

With regards to the CMA and SPA platforms, it was also revealed that the second-generation XC60—likely set for the 2018 model year—will be moved to the SPA alongside the XC90, S90, and V90. The new CMA platform will underpin the next generation of 40-series small cars, previewed in the form of the Concept 40.1 and Concept 40.2 revealed earlier this year and likely to arrive in production form by 2019.

Kerssemakers also confirmed the brand’s commitment to its Cross Country lineup and the recent addition of the V90 Cross Country, as well as Polestar variations of the V90 and S90 that will feature 600-horsepower hybrid powertrains, and added that “there will never be Volvos with diesel engines in the United States.”


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Gallery: Volvo Concept 40.1

Volvo Concept 40.1 front seven-eights

Gallery: Volvo’s CMA Platform

News Source: MotorTrend