Volvo XC90 Excellence makes European debut in Geneva
Volvo XC90 Excellence makes European debut in Geneva
The most luxurious car in Volvo Cars’ 89 year history – the exclusive four-seat XC90 Excellence – makes its European debut at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show.
The top-of-the-line XC90 Excellence is based on the award winning XC90 SUV and further reinforces the company’s credentials as a premium car maker.
It features extended leather-covered surfacing, finest quality upholstery and hand-crafted crystal glasses from Orrefors, the famous Swedish glass maker.
The superior comfort of the individual and adjustable rear seats, combined with a massage function and specially designed headrests, is further augmented with a refrigerator, two folding tables and cup holders with both heating and cooling options.
The XC90 Excellence is built on Volvo’s modular Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) and comes with the award-winning T8 Twin Engine plug-in hybrid powertrain as standard, offering three distinct driving modes in one car – Pure, Hybrid and Power. This means the XC90 Excellence can provide up to 410 hp combined with impressively low emissions.
“The XC90 Excellence offers a sublime and luxurious experience. It is our top-of-the-line XC90 offer and we see a lot of interest from our more affluent customers,” said Björn Annwall. “The additional sound insulation, enhanced Bowers & Wilkins sound system and convenience of rear seat controls takes the XC90 Excellence to a new level of luxurious calm and comfort.”
The XC90 Excellence is now exclusively available for ordering online in selected markets, reflecting the growing importance of digital commerce in Volvo’s sales and marketing strategy.
It follows in the footsteps of the First Edition XC90, a special and limited series of 1,927 individually numbered cars sold only online via www.volvocars.com. All 1,927 XC90 First Edition cars, celebrating the year Volvo was founded, were sold out within 48 hours after the start of sales in 2014.
Online sales for the XC90 Excellence have now started in Switzerland, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, while China will be added later this spring.
While the car is exclusively available online for now, it will become available for ordering at Volvo dealerships in other markets later this year, including in the United States.
“Selling the XC90 Excellence exclusively online is a perfect example of how Volvo Cars is changing the way it sells cars and adjusts to new customer trends,” said Björn Annwall, Senior Vice President Marketing, Sales and Service at Volvo Cars. “Regardless of where they order their cars, the aim remains to offer Volvo buyers the best customer experience possible together with our dealers.”
The digital commerce platform is an important element of Volvo’s Way to Market global marketing strategy and was developed following the successful pilot with the First Edition cars. It will be used more often as Volvo gradually starts to sell special edition cars online around the globe as a complement to Volvo dealerships.
The company has therefore worked closely with its dealer network in developing the tool in order to retain the personal touch that is so important in selling, delivering and servicing cars.
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Volvo Car Group in 2015
For the 2015 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 6,620 MSEK (2,128 MSEK in 2014). Revenue over the period amounted to 164,043 MSEK (137,590 MSEK). For the full year 2015, global sales reached a record 503,127 cars, an increase of 8 per cent versus 2014. The record sales and operating profit cleared the way for Volvo Car Group to continue investing in its global transformation plan.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 503,127 in 2015 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.
As of December 2015, Volvo Cars had almost 29,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).