All new electric motor and scalable modular platform also revealed
Volvo has lifted the covers on two new concepts that it says provide many clues to what the new 40 series small cars will look like when they start showing up in 2017.
A cross over and four-door sedan, badged the XC40 and S40, respectively were shown in Sweden provided the stongest hints to date of what the upcoming vehicles would look like. They are very much needed for Volvo to compete in the battle with larger rivals in key global markets.
The crossover and sedan are also the first collaboration between Volvo and its Chinese parent company, Geely who have big global aspirations for its own brand of vehicles.
The upcoming XC40 and S40 are slated to replace the aging V40 sold in markets other than North America. A new V40 hatchback and wagon are expected to appear in the United States and Canada by the end of the decade.
Power for the upcoming 40s will come from a new T5 Twin Engine plug-in hybrid powertrain, derived from the S90, V90, and XC90 T8 plug ins. However, the now power plant will be coupled to a new three-cylinder engine and 7-speed dual clutch automatic transmission. It is expected that the three-cylinder and dual-clutch configurations to go into base versions of the 40 series with the four-cylinder Drive-E engines powering faster models.
Even bigger news is a small-electric model. This is a first for the company and was done in part to meet California’s Electric Vehicle requirement, enabling Volvo to bypass many of its competitors in the premium segment. While starting with the smaller 40 series of vehicles, the power plant is will eventually find its way into the larger 90s cars and the upcoming replacements for the S60, V60, and XC60 built on Volvo’s Scalable Platform Architecture.
The new Scalable Platform Architecture, built in partnership with Geely, enables the company’s designers and engineers to explore new concepts and directions.
The XC40 is rumored to be the first of the upcoming 40s to into production that Volvo confirmed would start next year. The V40 and S40 are expected to appear in 2018 or 2019.
