Autoblog

If you're on the list of OEM component suppliers for the planned replacement of the Volvo XC90 sport-ute, don't read this article, because you haven't been informed yet. For everyone else, however, reports are emerging that Ford PAG has pulled the plug on the Swedish subsidiary's flagship SUV.

The reports come from the Swedish edition of Auto Motor & Sport , which cites the lack of environmentally-friendly powertrain alternatives as the main factor that influenced Ford to trash plans for the second-generation XC90, despite an anticipated launch in two years' time. Volvo has no hybrid powertain to put in the large SUV, slated to share a Ford platform, and no start/stop engine function. Rather than developing such systems, and with an eye on dropping sales of the rival BMW X5, PAG has reportedly opted to cancel the program altogether.

While the XC60, XC50 and possibly upcoming XC30 are expected to continue on without their bigger brother, the current XC90 model will receive a facelift in 2009 and stay on the market until 2012.

[Source: Auto Motor & Sport via World Car Fans]

There have been periodic rumors of a United States assembly plant for Volvo cars since at least the early 1980s. There was a North American construction arm of the Swedish carmaker, situated in Nova Scotia, but that plant has been shuttered for several years now. Volvo CEO Fredrik Arp has told Automotive News that an American plant would take an unacceptably long time to pay for itself, according to the automaker's studies. A weak dollar doesn't help the economic argument for a plant in the States, either. Volvo can currently handle its goal of 600,000 units worldwide, which they have yet to meet. Current plant capacity is good for 590,000 vehicles, so it goes building any new plants, Volvo would be wise to fully utilize its current capacity. The automaker is looking to markets other than North America to drive growth in the coming years -- China, India and Russia all look to be emerging soon as major Volvo buyers.

Arp would not be pressed regarding rumors of Volvo being put up for sale by parent Ford, but he did comment that the historically green-minded automaker has its finger on the pulse of viable alternative powertrains for the US market. Diesels and alternative fuels are big in Europe, but Volvo's not going to just forge ahead in the US with those technologies. Rather, what they intend to do is watch and see what green platform takes off here, and follow on quickly with their own version of whatever that turns out to be. Volvo is too much of a niche player in the US market to risk developing something that may be met with a yawn by the US consumer. Up for sale or not, it looks like Gothenburg's Rollers have their eyes on the brass ring.

[Source: Automotive News - sub req]


http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070626/ANE01/70626009/1116/rss03&rssfeed=rss03

Dang, it looks like everyone will have to dream up a new way to insult the four-door Cobalt. GM's Bob Lutz has announced that sales to fleet companies will be curtailed to the tune of 100,000 vehicles this year. The reduction is part of an ongoing effort to boost the resale value of General Motors cars. Reducing sales to fleet customers opens the door for some other automaker to deal with the stigma and doesn't ding the bottom line as much as it would seem.

Low-margin sales to fleet customers are less helpful to automakers than retail sales, and the perception that comes along with being a fleet powerhouse dings the perception further.

Lutz doesn't sound overly concerned with short-term hits in the bottom line, preferring to take the uncommon long view and even admitting that there will be bloodletting before GM is fully realizing its potential. He's been refreshingly candid about making the product good enough that it requires no excuses or incentives to sell, and changing the sales mentality at GM from one of panic to true competition for the foreign makers that have cleaned the domestic industry's clock. Product is no longer the hurdle for GM to clear, there's lots of great stuff for 2007, and we look forward to the day when people strike up excited conversations about domestic product with us.

[Source: Automotive News sub. req'd]