NOTABLE
Volvo Launches Second-Gen XC60
To say that the XC60 is an important car for Volvo, would be to vastly
understate the case. In the nine years that the first generation vehicle
has been out there (yes, that's a long run in some ways, but there were
refreshes along the way, so it's not like there were simply model year
2009 five-seat crossovers in Volvo dealerships that went without change),
the vehicle, on a global scale, has been responsible for about 30 percent
of the Swedish company's total sales (about one-million units). It is
the single largest selling vehicle in the lineup. And, according to Lex
Kerssemakers, Volvo senior vice president of the Americas and president
and CEO of Volvo Car USA, it "is an important car for Volvo in the United
States." In a market where crossovers and SUVs of all sizes and shapes are
being sold in volumes that are stretching the capabilities of produc-
tion plants (and speaking of production plants, the new XC60 is being
produced at the company's plant in Torslanda, Sweden), the XC60 matters
The 2018 XC60. It is the
fourth vehicle that is
based on Volvo's Scalable
Product Architecture.
greatly to the fortunes of Volvo, both in
the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.
It isn't like Volvo hasn't been up to
anything in the intervening years. Most
notably, it has developed what it calls its
Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), and
has developed its 90 series vehicles on
top of it, including the XC60's big brother, the XC90. The 2018 XC60 is based
on SPA; it is the fourth Volvo to use it.
A word about the SPA. The key word is scalable. For example, while the
2018 XC60 has a length of 184.6 inches, a wheelbase of 112.8 inches
and a width of 74.8 inches, the XC90 is 194.9 inches long, 75.7 inches
wide and has a wheelbase of 117.4 inches. The engineering is similar.
The vehicles are clearly dimensionally different.
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