Volvo OV4 to Volvo XC60 – Volvo celebrates its 90th as the new XC60 goes in to production

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The new Volvo XC60 goes in to production this month (April 2017) exactly 90 years after the first Volvo – the Volvo OV4 – arrived in April 1927.

All the Volvo news in recent months has been about the new Volvo XC60, as Volvo brings its second generation XC60 to the market to replace its best-selling original.

But this year isn’t just about the arrival of the new XC60 (and, later, the arrival of the new compact Volvo XC40 too), it’s also exactly 90 years since the first ever Volvo – the Volvo OV4 – saw the light of day on April 14 1927.

For those who love a classic Volvo – and to show off its new XC60 to the Germans – Volvo took a selection of classic Volvos, and the new XC60, to this year’s Techno Classica in Essen as part of its 90th celebration, but now they’re further celebrating by linking the start of the new XC60’s production to that of the first OV4.

Volvo are starting building the new XC60 this month, exactly 90 years from when the first OV4 was built, but they’re rather hoping to build slightly more XC60s  than the OV4 managed – it sold just 275.

But with the outgoing XC60 accounting for around 30 per cent of Volvo’s sales – and being the best-selling in its sector in Europe to the end of its run – that’s pretty much a given.

Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo CEO, said:

Volvo is very proud of its history. The past 90 years have been exciting, but the 10 years left until the 100-year anniversary may come to be more exciting as industry focus shifts to autonomous driving, electrification and connectivity.

The new XC60 is in many ways the embodiment of these trends.

And as a nice goodbye present for Volvo, the outgoing XC60 will surpass the 1,000,000 sales mark this month. We’d be astonished if the new Volvo XC60 doesn’t sell far more.