XC20 - new small car confirmed

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by george57l

No. They do not make any proper estate cars any more.

An estate car does not have a dog-leg rear tailgate with a severely sloping rear window such that you cannot get a wardrobe in it and close the tailgate.

An estate car does not have a badly engineered platform that forces rear seats to fold down at an angle - not level - such that anything placed on them ends up in the rear cargo area.

Not a single 'estate' car that Volvo has for sale today has 'fold-flat to level' rear seats. None of them has a remotely vertical rear tailgate/window.

The V70 was the last proper estate they made.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments, and made similar observations about my 2011 V60, moving from a V50. The V50, while not a V70, had a fairly vertical rear screen and fold flat rear seats. I don't use the full capacity very often so it's not too much of a compromise to me.

I was advised at the time, 'Well, you should have just got a V70', if that's what I wanted, but I still feel that if you're going to build an estate, build an estate, there's not much compromise to my mind at least, making the rear vertical, but 'it looks better with the slope and helps emissions'

When I complained that folding seats just seemed to be a cost cutting measure to me, some people said they prefer them this way as when the bottom folds forward, it takes a bit of length out of the car.

In the end Volvo offer what they think people will buy, and if I don't like it, I'm perfectly free to buy something else.

A post about the XC20, is probably not the place to have rant about the shape of Volvo estates, but George set me off. Rant over. Sorry guys.

[Paul Wildsmith]

Its all about room for battery pack - that is driving any design now.

[george57l]

Originally Posted by Paul Wildsmith

Its all about room for battery pack - that is driving any design now.

That may be true, but the sloping rear tailgate has nothing to do with batteries and the fold-at-an-angle seats were evident long before they started with the hybrids, let alone the all-electrics.
The new XC20, if the pics prove to be accurate, would look a lot better and be a darn sight more useful, even as a small car, if it didn't have such a strongly sloping rear tailgate.

And, Rocinante, glad I'm not the only one! ;-)

But the squab folding forward is very old now, all the mkII and mkIII versions fold flat with the squab left in place, and allowing loading length at floor level right up to the back of the front seats, and leaving loads of room for odd stuff in the rear footwells. I commented at the time, to Volvo, that this was a triumph of design. Unlike present cars.

[Derek UK]

No one has mentioned that it's electric. I know that's Volvo's future but it's not mine.

[Snoodini]

There sort of is a V40 replacement on the market right now though, the Polestar 2. It's basically a Volvo and is pretty much the same size

[e123]

Originally Posted by Snoodini

There sort of is a V40 replacement on the market right now though, the Polestar 2. It's basically a Volvo and is pretty much the same size

It's all electric and starts at around £47k.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Paul Wildsmith

Its all about room for battery pack - that is driving any design now.

^^^^^ This, and this is why the move to popularise SUV's - lots of room in the floor for batteries. Converting cars designed to have engines to be electric doesn't work, no space for batteries hence limited range and luggage space. This is why they killed off the V40 - that platform could not be electrified effectively. Although it was a FoMoCo platform, sales didn't start until after Volvo was sold so they could have modified it as they wanted.

With regard to the XC20 and comments on it's appearance - so you don't think they will sell any then??

[Bendolfc]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

^^^^^ This, and this is why the move to popularise SUV's - lots of room in the floor for batteries. Converting cars designed to have engines to be electric doesn't work, no space for batteries hence limited range and luggage space. This is why they killed off the V40 - that platform could not be electrified effectively. Although it was a FoMoCo platform, sales didn't start until after Volvo was sold so they could have modified it as they wanted.

With regard to the XC20 and comments on it's appearance - so you don't think they will sell any then??

The CMA platform was designed with electric in mind although as you say its a shared platform and the polestar 2 range is disappointing. I don't think the fingers can be pointed at the shared platform though, the Kia e-Niro and Huyaundi Kona are built on a shared platform and are pretty much class leading in terms of range.

[anotherv60]

Originally Posted by Bendolfc

The CMA platform was designed with electric in mind although as you say its a shared platform and the polestar 2 range is disappointing. I don't think the fingers can be pointed at the shared platform though, the Kia e-Niro and Huyaundi Kona are built on a shared platform and are pretty much class leading in terms of range.

The range thing issue is a little bit of apples and oranges. Kia's approach is to enable forward motion regardless of performance, what I mean by that is, the last few miles of range can only be achieved at 15-20mph. Volvo as I understand hasn't allowed that so the car will stop when it can no longer travel at 60mph. This means the range is much lower. In addition the easiest way to cheat the current tests is to fiddle the remaining battery percentage (this isn't something that can be directly measured, you can only measure voltage / current), that way if you over estimate the battery % on the EPA or WLTP then you will get a larger estimated range - as they simply look at battery life left at end of cycle and extrapolate. Volvo haven't cottoned on to this yet.

[oilit]

like the above comments, it's another blasted vertically elevated box

I was hoping for a new C30 type replacement....

what a shame.