In 2010 after marking time for the past two years the XC60 SUV sales, a raft of facelifts and a hot-looking new S60 sedan bristling with new technology will put it ahead of the pack in.
Alan Desselss managing director of Volvo Car Australia said he agreed with industry consensus that the market would remain relatively flat next year, with perhaps a little growth. But Mr Desselss said momentum was building for Volvo, with almost 300 forward orders going into the fourth quarter of this year and new-model activity planned for 2010.
He said Volvo dealers were excited about fourth-quarter activity and the prospects for growth next year.
“We would like to think we could buck the trend and be slightly ahead of it,” he said.
“We have a full year of XC60, where we are looking forward to some really good news.”
September Volvo sales were up 15.8 per cent on the same month of 2008, thanks mainly to its top-selling XC60 SUV which made up about one-third of Volvo sales and was the only model to crack three figures for the month, at 111 units.
Without XC60, which went on sale at the end of the first quarter, Volvo would be down more than 30 per cent this year.
Mr Desselss expects the facelift C30 hatch to give Volvo a fillip from March, although he is not expecting big sales volume from the fuel-sipping 1.6D DRIVe diesel version, which he describes as a “toe-in-the-water” exercise.
“We are honestly not banking on the volume,” he said. “It is incremental, so at this stage, whatever we get, we will be happy with.
“We are very keen to see how it is received here in Australia and then move forward from there.”
Volvo is all set to launch its S80 flagship, but slow sales of the old model have delayed the public launch.
Source: http://goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/D67765AE862D4FB8CA257651001B6EAF
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