Ever since Volvo's passenger car making division came under the wings of the Chinese automaker Geely, there has been a belief in the automotive industry that the Swedish maker would be coming up with a flagship luxury saloon which will have the stalwarts like the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes S Class in its sights.
Volvo even showcased a couple of concepts - the Universe and the You - to add gravity to the thought. However, the current CEO Mr. Hakan Samuelsson shrugged off the idea. According to him, an uber luxury flagship vehicle does not align with the brand's image and the current Volvo customers won't consider such a car.
Talking to Automotive New China, Mr. Samuelsson stated, "We don't have any ambitions to go into a segment where we would compete with vehicles that have V8 or V12 engines. We don't believe it would fit our brand image."
Volvo is right now in the process of shifting into a new era which will see new modular platform and engine architectures. Most of the current Volvo hardware came into existence under Ford's ownership.
With the flagship saloon out of the question, we can now expect Volvo to concentrate fully on the next generation XC90.
[Source: Europe.autonews.com]
