Filed under:
Plants/Manufacturing,
Hatchback,
Volvo
According to an
Autoblog reader with access to Volvo's internal dealer site, the Swedish automaker has officially notified its dealers that North American production of the
C30 will cease in December. It's not exactly a surprise - the C30 disappeared from Volvo's Swedish website months ago and
C30 forum users have been discussing the end of the hatch in various markets all summer. This only makes it official that
Volvo is pulling the plug on a car that only sold about 4,500 units per year for the six years it was here.
The bulletin notes that while the "C30 successfully achieved its goal to attract new customers to the Volvo brand, pulling a high percentage of customers from brands like
Mini,
Mazda and
Volkswagen," its end is necessitated by the need to develop "high volume products to better sustain our brand health and network viability moving forward," presumably in the U.S. market.
Autoblog reached out to Volvo for comment, and they confirmed the news, remarking "...we have made the decision to discontinue C30 production to better position Volvo for the future and the next stages of our model portfolio." (Their full statement is available by
scrolling below).
We've been hearing about this transition for years, but frankly, we still don't know what those products might be. The effacing of the C30 leaves the
S60,
S80,
XC60,
XC70 and
XC90 in the U.S. lineup - the
C70 convertible is expected to
bow out early next year. From everything we've heard out of Volvo, we're not getting the excellent new
V40 or
V40 Cross Country, but there have also been
rumors of a C90 and an
S100 luxury flagship that aren't anything like high volume. We've also heard that company CEO
Stefan Jacoby is
contemplating a Mini rival, but isn't that what the C30 was supposed to have been?
Perhaps the C30's biggest problem is what it costs to get in one. According to the company's consumer website, there are only two models offered, the base T5 starting at $25,500 and the
R-Design at $27,850. The C30s were well equipped, but the
Mini Cooper starts at $20,400. For those volume buyers fixated on the bottom line, that stat led to some open minds slamming shut on the C30. The little hatch also could have used a lot more advertising. While we wait for something to take a spot under the
S60, the dealer bulletin suggests that the
C30 Polestar Limited Edition promised for the U.S. will figure into dealers' final allocations.
Here's hoping that an eventual C30 successor will make a better go of it.
Continue reading Volvo takes final orders for C30, production ends this December
Volvo takes final orders for C30, production ends this December originally appeared on
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Confirmed: Volvo takes final orders for C30, production ends this December
