Hatchback key to Volvo future

Volvo’s new V40 hatchback revealed at the Geneva motor show last week is a game-changer for the Swedish marque. And not just in traditional hatchback markets.

Alongside the Mercedes-Benz A-Class also unveiled at the Swiss show, the V40 represents the first in a new generation of compact premium cars that look set to garner significant volumes for brands in markets all around the globe. That Audi also launched a new A3 at the show was lost on few – downsizing is as important at the top end of town as in the mass market.

Unlike Benz and Audi, however, Volvo does not have firm plans to expand the V40 line-up. For the moment the five-door hatch is it.

Volvo product boss Lex Kerssemakers says he would like to add a compact SUV on the platform to sit under XC60 but warns: "We need to replace XC90. We need to replace S80, V70, XC70. We have a lot on our plate... So we need to find the right moment and the right amount of money before we can do the XC40. It’s very simple. I can’t make a nicer story out of it than that."

We can confirm now that while Down Under the V40 may run alongside the S40 sedan and V50 wagon as stocks are runout, the end of production of the older cars is imminent. C30 will continue – in its three-door form, perhaps with a facelift to align it more closely with V40.

The V40 is touted by some as all-new. It is in fact a development of the S40's Focus-based platform, using lessons from the S60. But says V40 project director, Hakan Abrahamsson, this doesn't mean the car is half baked. Indeed, Abrahamsson contends that this is the Volvo that will take on its German opposition four-square.

"What we have done to this car is that we have taken it to a completely different level than what we have had with C30, S40, V50. When it comes to the chassis - it’s [the] newly developed chassis where we have been inspired by the success of the S60.

"We have taken chassis component and tuned them further from these cars. So for example we have gone up in dimension in the front -- the front struts from 22 to 25mm. We use, in the rear, monotube dampers. We have changed the steering column completely to have much more rigid system than we had before and it’s based on tubes instead of rods. We have [an] integrated strut brace... We have reached a completely different level when it comes to agility and steering response in this car."?
"And we have taken all electronics, all safety systems – like driver’s support system and passive systems – from the larger cars and put it all into this small car. And that is [something] that has never been seen in this segment before."

Indeed, the new small hatch will embrace a number of segment-firsts. Probably the most publicised, a pedestrian airbag system will be standard on the new car.

Taking the business of looking after people other than occupants seriously, the system employs a combination of airbags and a pop-up bonnet to protect pedestrians in an impact, while also doing everything possible to avoid impact in the first place via what Volvo calls Full Auto Brake. This is able to detect a pedestrian already on, or about to step onto the roadway via a camera integrated into the grille. It will autonomously brake the car to a stop if the driver fails to react quickly enough.

The small Volvo will also come as standard with the latest version of Volvo’s collision-avoiding City Safety, uprated significantly from the existing system seen elsewhere in the Volvo range from a 30km/h effective maximum operational speed to 50km/h. Plus the V40 comes with a first-in-segment rollover protection system and uses a closing-velocity sensor that advises the computer to prepare the car’s seatbelt and airbags systems for an imminent crash.

Optional safety aids include lane-keeping control (including haptic — which means “relating to or based on the sense of touch” — auto steering) road sign information (to read local speed restrictions), active high beam control, a cross-traffic alert system that warns of approaching traffic when reversing out of a parking spot, and an auto parking system.

It's a very high level of specification and indicative of where the segment will head. Benz's new A-Class will offer many of the same innovations.

Inside the V40 there’s the familiar Volvo architecture, including a slimmer version of the already anorexic centre console panel and a new, fully graphic instrument cluster using an Active Thin Film Transistor (TFT) crystal display that allows the driver to select from three colour themes.

The default position is “Elegance” while “Eco” with green background and environment-conscious symbols such as an eco meter with current and accumulated fuel consumption figures features an encouraging green light that illuminates when the driver is doing the correct ecological thing. There’s also a “Performance” display with red background illumination and a rearrangement of the display that brings the tachometer to front and centre. A power meter tells the driver how much power is available and how much is currently being used.

With a significant upgrade in interior design and materials it's a fresh, classy cabin – if the showcars are anything to go by. And the ambience is boosted thanks to the fact the V40 joins the trend towards massively extended glass areas. An optional fixed full-length sunroof extends from the top of the windscreen through to the rear-seat backrests.

Featuring a range of engines – initially the same Ford based petrol and diesel fours and Volvo fives – the V40 will eventually benefit from Volvo's own range of turbo and twin-charged fours. Volvo will announce the full details of the powertrain line-up in the months ahead. Good news for performance fans is the top-spec five-cylinder petrol is still on the menu.

Powershift twin-clutch and traditional autos will be offered across the line-up as well as manual models.

At this stage no electrified or hybrid versions of the V40 are offered or even on the drawing boards. However, like all good eco warriors, the V40 features start-stop technology as well as smart alternators that charge the battery on the overrun (incorrectly termed brake energy regeneration) to maximise fuel economy and minimise CO2 emissions.

The V40 will be built at Volvo’s plant in Ghent, Belgium, with an annual global sales forecast of 90,000 cars – 85 per cent of which are expected to be sold in European markets. While that doesn’t appear to provide generously for other markets – including Australia, where it will go on sale either late this year or early in 2013 – the elephant in the room is Volvo's plan to build the car in China.

Kerssemakers says Chinese tastes are evolving and that new car buyers are rapidly adopting European trends. When it comes with a Volvo, or indeed Mercedes badge, there's less worry than ever about a hatchback being considered down market.

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