Upcoming 40 Series Will Be Volvo’s Most Compact Cars, And That’s That

Volvo has recently shown two concepts previewing the next 40 Series models that will hit the market soon enough.

Yup, although Volvo plans to expand into the large and lucrative global market for premium small cars with a range of vehicles that adhere to its philosophy, Car and Driver reports that the Swedish company won’t build smaller cars than the upcoming 40 Series.

“We obviously move toward segments that we can sell around the world. It’s very hard to make money in that segment right now”, CEO Hakan Samuelsson, Volvo’s CEO explained at the unveiling of the new concepts in Gothenburg last week. “Of course we could downsize our CMA architecture, which underpins the 40-series, but that is not on the agenda.”

The upcoming automobiles based on the four-door sedan (40.2) and taller crossover (40.1) – likely to be labeled S40 and XC40, respectively – will be the first built around Volvo’s new Compact Modular Architecture, that has been specially created for smaller cars. Given all that, a successor to the C30 wasn’t deemed something out of reach, but due to the compact four-seater’s poor global sales (5,628 units in 2013, and 170 in 2014) Volvo will stay away from that segment right now.

There’s still a positive upshot from Volvo, as the company plans to offer more “emotional” models after the product matrix grid is filled. That probably translates into some Polestar-enhanced variants, including one powered by the company’s 450 HP triple-charged engine.