First look: Volvo S60 spawns V60 wagon

VOLVO’S all-new V60 wagon has officially broken cover in Europe even before the new S60 sedan upon which it is based arrives Down Under in December.

The additional mid-size wagon, which will go on sale here by March next year, was formally revealed after images of it were leaked to a Swedish magazine ahead of its global public debut at the Paris motor show on September 30.

Described by Sweden’s biggest car-maker as a coupe that is as sporty as the S60 sedan, the V60 wagon will be positioned between the smaller V50 and larger V70/XC70 twins.

Although a sloping roofline, pronounced shoulder crease. LED front and rear lighting and small third side window behind the C-pillar give it an athletic look for a wagon, the V60 estate is clearly a more practical version of the S60 sedan – albeit with less interior space than the V70.

“From a design viewpoint the focus was on making the car as close to a coupe as possible, while retaining that handy extra space at the rear,” said the head of exterior design for the V60, Orjan Sterner.

“(But) Our sports wagon does not aim to compete with the traditional estate car. For the customer who wants a lot of load space there is our V70.”Features unique to the V60 include a flat-folding front passenger seat and 40/20/40-split folding rear seat, liberating a fully flat load floor that offers 430 litres of cargo space with the rear seats in place. Volvo has yet to reveal the V60’s maximum capacity.



As with the S60, the Australian engine line-up for the V60 is yet to be revealed, but in Europe will comprise the upgraded engine range Volvo revealed in May, including five petrol engines ranging between 1.6 to 3.0 litres and three diesel options – 2.0 and 2.4-litre five-cylinder and a 1.6-litre four-cylinder oil-burner.

The V60 will also come with Volvo’s Pedestrian Detection and City Safety crash avoidance technologies, which can automatically brake at speeds of up to 35km/h to avoid a collision with pedestrians or other vehicles if the driver does not react in time.

While Volvo Cars Australia hopes to achieve 5000 sales in 2010 – its first full year of XC60 sales – thanks in part to the facelifted C30 hatchback and C70 coupe-convertible, the arrival of the S60 in December and V60 in March is expected to boost its annual sales tally to 7000 in coming years.

Volvo Cars says about 90 per cent of the 50,000 V60s it plans to sell a year will go to European buyers, first deliveries of which will start soon after it makes its Paris debut. Production will take place alongside the S60 at Volvo’s Torslanda plant and the largest markets are expected to be Sweden, UK, Netherlands, Italy and Germany.

“The typical sports wagon customer is an S60 buyer who would like some extra space and flexibility, but without the slightest compromise on sporty design and exciting driving properties,” said Volvo Cars president and CEO Stephen Odell.