STOCKHOLM: Volvo Cars has reported that orders for its XC40 small premium sport utility vehicle (SUV) has already exceeded 20,000 units and with deliveries already beginning in Europe and America, it's now headed for the upcoming Beijing Auto Show in March.

The five-door Swedish compact SUV made its official debut last year in September and has two 2.0-litre (1,969cc) turbocharged engines for choice - one for petrol and another for diesel.



The B4204T14 petrol engine for the T5 AWD variant produces 247PS at 5,500rpm and 350Nm of torque from 1,800 to 4,800rpm.

As for the D4204T12 diesel engine for the D4AWD variant, it dishes out 190PS at 4,000rpm and 400Nm of torque from 1,750 to 2,500rpm.

Depending on variant, the XC40 weighs in from 1,684kg to 1,733kg (kerb), while sporting a 2,702mm wheelbase and measuring 4,425mm-long, 1,863mm-wide and 1,652mm-tall.

The arrival of the XC40 means that for the first time, Volvo Cars has three new globally available SUVs in what is the fastest growing segment of the automotive market, paving the way for further growth in sales and profitability.

The Swedish compact SUV is the first model on Volvo Cars’ new compact modular-vehicle architecture (CMA), which will underpin all upcoming cars in the 40 Series, including fully electrified vehicles. Co-developed within Geely, CMA provides the company with the necessary economies of scale for this segment.

The XC40 is also the first Volvo to come with a car-sharing feature, enabled via Volvo’s digital key technology and its connected services platform Volvo On Call.

New owners can simply share their car with family and friends without having to hand over a physical key.

Today Volvo Cars also launches its global marketing campaign around the XC40. The campaign features a new version of the famous ‘My Favorite Things’ song from the classic musical and film, ‘Sound of Music’. The campaign version was recorded by Swedish artist Jennie Abrahamson and was released on Spotify just prior to the campaign launch. The song and updated context underline Volvo Cars’ approach to challenging the traditional car ownership model.

“With the XC40, we enter the fastest growing segment in the industry, the XC40 completes our global SUV line-up, bringing the award-winning safety, connectivity and infotainment technologies known from our larger cars to the small SUV segment. These latest figures show that our customers clearly like what they see,” said Volvo Cars senior vice president of strategy, brand and retail Björn Annwall.

Volvo’s new small SUV is one of seven shortlisted for the 2018 European Car of the Year, the winner of which will be announced in March. This week, the XC40 was awarded the prestigious Car of the Year award by leading UK automotive publication What Car?

Keywords