First look: Volvo's new flagship

HOW Volvo. The company that has made its name building wagons will unveil a new five-door flagship at January's Detroit motor show.

The luxury load-lugger is the latest sign of the Ford-owned Swedish company's expansion plans which will see two new cars unveiled every year until 2007.

Expected to be called the V90, the wagon will be presented as a concept at Detroit, but is tipped to be on sale as a production car by 2005.

While this big wagon will occupy plenty of attention at Detroit, the main Volvo emphasis over the next few years will actually be on a whole raft of small cars springing from the new P1 platform that will also underpin the next generation Ford Focus and Mazda3 replacement for the 323.

These cars include the S40 and V50 due next year, which are direct replacements for the current S and V40. Other vehicles tipped over the next few years are the XC50 and XC30 soft-roaders, a V30 small car roughly the size of the VW Golf and the C50 replacement for the C70, which could be a metal-roofed convertible.

You can also expect to see more "R" variants emerging, with the S60R and V70R debuting at the Paris show in September.

This expanding range is vital in Volvo's strategy to push worldwide sales from around 425,000 today to beyond 600,000 in 2005-2006.

While refusing to confirm the V90 name, Volvo Car Corporation senior vice-president Olle Axelson admitted the concept evoked the Mercedes-Benz GST unveiled at Detroit this year, and the Audi Avantissimo concept that broke cover at Frankfurt in 2001.

"But our car will also have all the Volvo virtues, so it is still different from what the competition is," he said.

"It is building on the heritage of Volvo being big in the station wagons.

"This is something we have been talking about but haven't had time to deal with." Mr Axelson made it clear that the concept debuting at Detroit was intended for production.

"We will show a concept car in Detroit and our idea with the concept car strategy is we have never really built concept cars for show and not delivered on it," he said.

As there is no sedan equivalent to V90, the plan seems to be that it will sit above S80 and tackle head-on luxury saloons like the Mercedes-Benz S-class, BMW 7 Series and Audi A8.

The V90, which is the same moniker as the wagon sold in Australia in 1997 and 1998 in place of the 960, is expected to be a seven-seater and could offer V8 power and all-wheel drive variants.

It is fair to assume that many of the technologies and interior features revealed with the new XC90 soft-roader will be incorporated into the V90.

Power choices for entry level front-drive models are reported to come from 3.0-litre petrol or 3.2-litre turbo-diesel units. The range-topper is meant to be a 225kW 4.0-litre V8 developed with Yamaha, which is the biggest engine ever fitted to a Volvo.

This engine will only come mated to four-wheel drive and air suspension. It has also been suggested it will flow on into the XC90 and S80, although recent European reports insist the S80 V8 project has been axed by Ford.

But Mr Axelson refused to confirm these reports: "Volvo have not decided on a V8 engine yet. We are still investigating. Consequently we have not decided to show any new engine in Detroit." He did confirm the existence of the Yamaha V8 engine, describing it as a "fantastic" unit in terms of performance and packaging.

European reports say styling of the V90 reflects current Volvo trends such as the broad shoulders, but also incorporates features from popular 1950s and '60s models.

"VOLVO" lettering stretches across the entire width of the raised bonnet line, in a similar way to the old PV455 and "Amazon", while round headlamps have been incorporated behind clear covers.

Inside there's said to be highly flexible seating for as many as seven or four can be carried in luxury armchairs as much as 1900 litres of luggage space is released with the seats folded a sliding shelf to double the load deck and an electrically operated tailgate.