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Staying alert to the road ahead

Date: 15 February 2017   |   Author: Debbie Wood

Volvo and safety go together like fish and chips, bread and butter and Ant and Dec. You can barely think about one without the other, but UK boss Jon Wakefield admits older perceptions of both need to be modernised in 2017 if Volvo is going to be successful.

Wakefield wants to erase age-old visions of crash dummies and big bumpers and plans to educate its fleet customers more on the smart technology available on Volvo cars today.

"Our brand is well known but I think we can articulate ourselves in a much clearer fashion moving forwards by really pulling out the key aspects of Volvo.

We're at a really exciting phase where we can change the face of motoring." Wakefield told BusinessCar. "Making safety contemporary is key - now it's all about the technology and autonomous driving. We're not just about the big
stiff chassis."

The UK is the fourth-largest market for Volvo globally and the firm has enjoyed three years of consecutive growth. Last year, Volvo sold 46,700 cars, up from 43,200 in 2015. With a range of new cars expected over the coming years, the carmaker plans to grow sales to 60,000 a year and 800,000 globally by 2020.

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Making sure fleets are both aware of the latest safety technology that will feature on these new cars, as well as knowing how to best utilise it, is a key challenge for the firm.

Recent innovations such as Run-off Road Mitigation and Large Animal Detection are unique to the industry and feature as standard on recent models like the V90 and S90. The technology gives fleets many advantages, including minimising risk, reducing accidents and insurance costs, and improving overall efficiency. 

"Communicating the benefits of our new technology is crucial, and we have many ways to do this," said Wakefield, who was officially made MD in September 2016 having served as acting MD since July, succeeding Nick Connor, who became chief executive of Volvo's high-performance division Polestar.

"The media plays a vital role, but of crucial importance are our regional business sales managers. They spend a lot of time talking to our corporate customers, so they understand their needs and how investing in a Volvo can make their drivers' lives both safer and easier."

And more is on the way. Slippery Road Alert and Hazard Light Alert are two examples of technology that are currently available in Norway and Sweden. Both systems use cloud-based data from the car to warn following vehicles of dangers ahead, and there is potential for these features to be rolled out more widely in the future.

To reach the 2020 target, new models will be essential and this year will see the arrival of the next-generation XC60, likely to be revealed at March's Geneva motor show, and at the end of the year the XC40, a new C-segment SUV that will take quite a departure from the firm's more conservative styling and is expected to be a big success for Volvo.

"That segment last year sold two-and-a-half times more cars than the segment the XC60 sits in, so we expect the XC40 to be significant," he said.

A new S60 and V60 are also expected to follow the new SUV in early 2018.

"Over the last three or four years we have grown from what was a fairly consistent base of around 32,000 sales. It is all part of a growth strategy that takes us closer to 60,000 cars here in the UK and we feel like we're well on track to achieve this," Wakefield said.

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Hybridisation will also be key moving forwards and in addition the XC60 and V40 will likely become the first electric models to be introduced across the line-up.

"Our chairman does like to throw out a challenge to the organisation and in the public he's quoted a vision that we would sell a million electrified vehicles by 2025. So yes, the focus is certainly on the early stages hybridisation, and further down the line electrification," Wakefield concluded.



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