Why the 2017 S90 Sedan and Upcoming V90 Wagon Are Important to Volvo

"SUV is the backbone of Volvo," said Volvo U.S. president Lex Kerssemakers at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show in an interview. Although XC-badged crossovers accounted for a full 62.9 percent of Volvo's U.S. sales in 2015, two important sedans, the 2017 S90 and next-gen S60, will soon roll into showrooms. Debuting at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show, the S90 competes with German midsize luxury sedans and replaces the aging S80. We caught up with Kerssemakers at the 2016 Detroit show to learn more about why sedans such as the S90 are still important to Volvo and whether consumers are ready for semi-autonomous driving technology.

SUV sales may be hot at luxury automakers including Volvo, Acura, and Buick, but Kerssemakers still sees value in sedans.

"The U.S. and China are still very hot on sedans," he says. "And we believe that you need to have a premium sedan in your portfolio if you want to be a real premium player."

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Enter the 2017 Volvo S90 … as well as the 2017 Lincoln Continental and 2017 Genesis G90. Those three four-doors won't necessarily compete for the same buyers, but all three 2016 Detroit debuts reflect a focus on decently sized luxury sedans between $50,000-$75,000.

We believe you need a premium sedan in your portfolio if you want to be a real premium player

"Not everybody is into high seating," he says about sedans and the current popularity of SUVs. "We have a tendency to forget it. Not everybody has a family and two or three young kids." And even if they do, the executive points out that future S90 owners may already have a large crossover in the garage for weekend trips and vacations. Whether there are enough Volvo luxury sedan buyers around $50,000 and up out there to help the S90 achieve half the success of the XC90—Volvo's second-best-seller in December—remains to be seen.

To stretch the S90's premium appeal, Volvo will offer a long-wheelbase variant, as we've previously reported. Will people appreciate the long-wheelbase model in the U.S.?

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"I think so, especially in the U.S.," Kerssemakers says. "It's space, and nobody says no to [extra] space in the United States."

Speaking of extra space, the Volvo V90 wagon will see to it that the Mercedes-Benz E-Class doesn't have the midsize luxury wagon niche all to itself anymore. The V90, as we noted in December, is almost certainly headed to our shores. Which models we'll get hasn't yet been decided, but "if it's not the regular one, [expect] the Cross Country variant," Kersemakers says.

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With Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, and other automakers starting to offer semi-autonomous technologies, Volvo is hoping that offering these expensive features as standard on every S90 will help set it apart. Moving forward from the 2016 XC90's semi-autonomous Pilot Assist feature that can speed up, slow down, and steer in certain conditions up to 30 mph, the S90 increases that speed to 80 mph.

"If we would launch a fully autonomous drive now, I think it would not work because the people are not ready for it. You have to grow into it," he says.

The same semi-autonomous technologies could soon become standard on the XC90, too, but Volvo is going to test customer reception with the S90. Lots of choices exist for luxury sedan buyers with at least $50,000 to spend. As Mercedes-Benz introduces the 2017 E-Class, BMW is readying the next-gen 5 Series, and other automakers from Lincoln to Jaguar have new four-doors to excite buyers. How much progress the S90 makes in increasing luxury-sedan market share over the outgoing S80 will be determined when the sedan goes on sale later this year, followed—most likely—by a V90 wagon variant.

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