Volvo’s new S90 key to its Irish ambitions

Volvo has unveiled its new saloon, the S90, which is the second model in its full brand reinvention. That began last year with the critically-acclaimed and strong-selling XC90 SUV. The XC90, though, was almost a gimme in terms of success – it was following on from a hugely successful first-generation model, into a market segment where carmakers can barely keep up with demand.

The S90's task is very, very different as it enters a segment which is actually in decline. Although its key rivals (the BMW 5 Series, Audi A6 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class) are all significant models for their respective makers, the fact is that their sales are slipping. E-Class sales hit a peak in 1997 and have been on the way down ever since, bar an upward tick in 2009 when the current model was introduced. The 5 Series, likewise, has seen around a third of its sales go up in smoke in the last two decades. The A6 has seen its sales rise and fall over the same period, but there's a definite downward trend.

Volvo seems, on a global scale, sanguine about this and accepts that the S90 is there almost (but not quite entirely) as window dressing – a car which Volvo must make if it’s to be taken seriously as a premium manufacturer, rather than as a driver of sales volume. Senior Volvo executives have admitted that it’s not a car which will be discounted in search of bigger sales, rather that it’s there to underline Volvo’s credibility.

It’s certainly got tech on its side. Based on the same scalable architecture as the XC90, it’s light and packed with technology. The same tablet-like touchscreen makes an appearance on the centre console, while the wood trim which surrounds it comes from fire birch trees which only grow in the north of Scandinavia. The cabin has the same pared-back yet luxurious style.

Big, bluff bonnet

Under that big, bluff bonnet lies the same engine range, too. There’ll be an entry-level D3 diesel with 150hp, while the likely best-selling D4 2.0-litre diesel engine will have 190hp but CO2 emissions of just 109g/km. There’ll be a more powerful 235bhp D5 diesel and the same T8 Twin Engine plug-in hybrid as found in the XC90. That combo – a turbocharged petrol engine backed up by a plug-in hybrid electric motor good for around 50km on just the batteries – will have 44g/km CO2 emissions and is likely to make up a surprisingly large number of Irish-registered S90s. The XC90 T8 is achieving roughly 25 per cent of Irish sales and it’s expected that the S90 T8 will settle in at around 20 per cent.

Exactly how many sales make up 20 per cent is a tougher question, though. In Ireland, executive saloons are bucking the downward sales trend from the wider European market and are basically holding steady.

BMW, for instance, has sold close to 1,500 5 Series consistently every year since 2012. Audi has caught up a bit, and sells around 1,000 A6s, while Mercedes generally shifts somewhere between 600 and 800 E-Classes every year. Volvo’s old S80, the car which the S90 replaces (along with the forthcoming V90 estate which will replace the V70) fares rather less well. So far in 2015, it has sold just 47. That gives Volvo Ireland a very small car park of existing owners to which to sell, and makes conquest sales an absolute necessity.

‘Push the boundaries’

Still, the Volvo Ireland team is upbeat about its new saloon model. “The Volvo S90 will push the boundaries in terms of design and technology with a number of world and segment firsts such as Run off road Mitigation and next generation of City safety which now includes Pedestrian, Cyclist and large animal detection,” said

Patricia Greene

, product and marketing manager for Volvo Car Ireland. “ The Volvo XC90 has been a huge success for us in Ireland and the S90 will feature a lot of the same technology and design features.”

Can Volvo trigger an executive car revolution with the S90, and the upcoming V90? It will be trying its hardest to do so.

It's an enormous task, when you consider that highly-regarded brands such as Lexus and Jaguar struggle to sell one 10th of what BMW and Audi can do in this market, but perhaps, given the ever increasing desire for safety and more environmentally- conscious performance, Volvo might just be striking the executive car market while the iron is at just the right temperature.