What’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of Volvo? Chances are, it will be “safety”. The Swedish brand has built a long and enviable reputation for producing some of the safest cars in the world, which continues today.
From its very beginning, almost 100 years ago, safety was Volvo’s number one priority. Its most famous innovation is the three-point seatbelt, introduced in 1959 and claimed by the company to have saved more than a million lives around the world over the last 65 years.
Today, Volvo combines its expertise in safety with high standards of quality and technology, making it a credible rival to the German luxury carmakers Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Volvo is a brand as technologically savvy as any of its competitors and, unsurprisingly, a leading player in the transition to electrification.
A very Swedish brand, despite being Chinese-owned for the last 15 years, Volvo enjoys a brand reputation that makes it the envy of many rivals.
So who or what is Volvo?
At time of writing, Volvo is just two years shy of its centenary anniversary. Founded in Sweden in 1927, the car company had safety as its guiding principle from the start, and it’s a mantra the company has never moved away from. The name Volvo comes from the Latin, meaning ‘I roll’. This is because the original intention had been to create a new type of ball bearing but those plans never came to pass.
The first Volvo car was followed within a year by the first Volvo truck, the start of a truck and bus division that immediately became more profitable and important than its cars, especially as it was not until the launch of a small car called the PV444 in 1944 that Volvo really took off as a car manufacturer. It quickly became Volvo’s best seller, especially in North America, and led to the company opening a new factory in Canada.
However, by the 1970s, Volvo was struggling against a wave of new Japanese brands, particularly in the United States. The company decided that it could only survive by merging with a larger car manufacturer. After a failed attempt to join with fellow Swedish car manufacturer Saab, the Volvo Car Corporation was separated from the rest of the company in 1978. It worked closely with Renault for more than 15 years until a planned merger in 1994 was rejected by the board and shareholders, and the partnership ended.
Volvo Group management then decided that commercial vehicles were the future and looked to offload the struggling car division altogether. In 1999, Ford paid more than $6 billion for the Volvo Car Corporation and placed the Swedish brand in its ‘Premier Automotive Group’ alongside Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover.
Ford made the most of its asset – Volvo technology was used by the other three Premier brands and in Ford cars. But the division faced mounting losses, and Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Indian giant Tata in 2008. Ford was loath to lose Volvo, however, and repositioned the brand with a more upmarket image to take on the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Typical of this new breed of Volvo was the first XC60 crossover, which was an immediate success and continues on sale in its second generation today.
Despite the sale of Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin to boost cash reserves back in America, Ford’s troubles deepened in the great financial crisis of the late 2000s. Fears for the future of Volvo increased and pleas to ensure the brand’s survival were even made to the Swedish government. Volkswagen was touted as a suitor, but the successful bidder proved to be Chinese giant Geely, and a $1.8 billion deal was signed in 2010.
Geely proved an excellent fit for Volvo. Technical advancements, such as new vehicle platforms and more efficient petrol and diesel engines, helped to establish quality alongside the company’s long-standing reputation for safety. In 2015, the brand hit half a million annual sales for the first time. In recent years, Geely has also become the second-largest shareholder in Volvo Group, the parent company that sold off Volvo Cars to Ford, so in a way the car company has come home under its Chinese owners…
It is perhaps no surprise for a car manufacturer from Scandinavia (where the switch to electric has progressed much faster than elsewhere) and owned by the Chinese (who are amassing a considerable lead in developing new EV technology), Volvo has made large strides towards EV adoption. It dropped its traditional saloons and estates to focus on SUVs, and announced that they would all be fully electric by 2030.
Recently, however, this ambition has been scaled back slightly as the growth in EV demand has slowed and fierce competition has increased the number of options in the market. Some of the estates are now back on sale, and the brand is now saying that by 2030 it intends at least 90% of its sales to be ‘electrified’ – meaning both full EVs and hybrids. The end goal is still a purely EV line-up, but it has probably been delayed by five years.
What models does Volvo have and what else is coming?
Once known for its large saloons and particularly estates, Volvo has moved away from such cars – the S60 and S90 saloons were both dropped in 2023 while their estate siblings, the V60 and V90, were also cut but then reinstated a year later, when Volvo decided the estate market was not dying after all. They now sit in a showroom otherwise dominated by SUVs. The current nine-strong model line-up also includes four electric vehicles.
The V60 and V90 estates are unlikely to be around for much longer, despite having their fans and both being regarded as quality premium products. The V60 receives consistent praise for its general quality of design and comfort levels and earns a New Car Expert Rating of B in The Car Expert’s Expert Rating analysis. It cannot match the rival BMW 3 Series Touring for its handling, but this is an area in which BMW excels.
It’s a similar story with the Volvo V90 – much-praised design, quality and comfort but if you want the best drive go for the BMW 5 Series Touring. Again, the Volvo earns a New Car Expert Rating of B rating from The Car Expert.
In recent years the core Volvo range has been the three SUVs, going up in size through XC40, XC60 and XC90. With the Swedish brand having committed to selling only electric vehicles by 2030, all were thought to be coming towards the end of their lives.
However, Volvo has indicated that it could keep these three around a while longer. The XC90 recently underwent a major update, inspired by the electric EX90 that was supposed to replace it.
All three of the fossil-fuel SUVs are sold with plug-in hybrid powertrains and all are highly rated, especially the mid-sized XC60 to which The Car Expert gives a New Car Expert Rating of A.
The flagship of the four electric Volvos currently on offer is the EX90 large SUV, launched in 2024 and offering seven seats. It’s earned good reviews from some testers though it has also been dubbed too large and heavy, and expensive. The Car Expert gives it a New Car Expert Rating of B, while its smaller siblings the EX30 and EX40 both get a New Car Expert Rating of A.
Current Volvo range on our Expert Rating Index
The EX30 has particularly impressed, racking up a couple of Car of the Year titles from UK media but also being criticised for the lack of buttons in the cabin, with almost everything controlled through a central touchscreen. New for 2025 is a more rugged version called the EX30 Cross Country.
The EX40 was the first fully electric Volvo, initially known as the XC40 Recharge, and is closely related to the Polestar 2 produced by Volvo’s sister brand. A coupé SUV version of this model is called the EC40 (initially called the C40) – this was the first Volvo model to launch only in electric form. While generally praised, it has been criticised for being notably more expensive than the mechanically identical EX40.
Coming soon is the ES90 large saloon – effectively the electric successor to the S90 and so targeting the executive saloon market against cars like the BMW i5 and Audi A6 e-tron. Also sold in China but not currently available in the UK is the EM90, a large and luxurious electric people mover.
Where can I try a Volvo car?
Volvo is one of the manufacturers that has been evolving towards offering direct sales of its cars through its website, and has even extended this to used cars. Despite this, dealerships still form an essential part of the sales process, especially when it comes to offering test drives.
The brand has just over 100 retail outlets, reasonably well spread across the UK, so a prospective Volvo buyer should not have to drive too far to try one out.
What makes Volvo different to the rest?
Volvo has managed to change its 1970s reputation for tough but not particularly luxurious cars to become one of those makers that sits above other mainstream brands, with levels of quality and technology that makes them a credible rival to the ‘premium’ makers such as BMW and Audi. But the one quality that has stayed with this maker is its reputation for safety.
Volvos offered laminated glass windows way back in the 1940s. The company invented the three-point seatbelt, then opened up the patent to ensure all makers could fit them in their vehicles. Rear-facing child seats, side impact protection and side airbags, and blind-spot information are among a long list of safety features universally used today but first seen on a Volvo.
Despite routinely clocking up some of the highest scores in Euro NCAP crash tests, Volvo continues to heavily develop its safety package – the company has a stated aim of a future which produces “zero collisions”.
A Volvo fact to impress your friends
Volvos have always been known to be robust vehicles, and nowhere is this more acutely demonstrated than in the manufacturer’s own High Mileage Club. When your car passes 150,000 miles you qualify for Bronze membership and a badge for your car celebrating the fact, 300,000 miles gets you Silver membership, and to hit Gold you just have to clock up 500,000 miles.
Top of the club as we write is one Irv Gordon in the USA, who reckons he’s done more than three million miles in his Volvo 1800S.
Summary
The Volvo of today is a brand that offers much in all areas – its cars are built to high standards, are comfortable to travel in and perform well. Anyone who gets into a Volvo also knows they are travelling in one of the safest cars around, the quality that this maker values more than any other.
Additional reporting by Stuart Masson
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