Volvo shelves 100 years of history as it drops ALL saloons and Estates in the UK

As Volvo chases its aim of being all-electric by 2023, it’s dropped all saloons and estate cars for the UK leaving just Volvo SUVs.

For getting on for 100 years, Volvo has been building robust saloons with a heavy focus on safety, garnering a strong reputation as the car of choice for the chattering classes.

That appeal was further advanced when Volvo started building Estate cars in 1953 with the Volvo Duett, followed over the last 70 years by a procession of ever-more appealing capacious estates perfect for lugging stuff and kids.

But as Volvo dives headlong into an electric future, it has already dropped the S90 saloon and Cross Country cars from the UK, and now it’s gone the whole hog by dropping all saloons and estates from the market.

Volvo says the decision has been taken because sales of saloons and estates make up just 10 per cent of sales, although it could be argued that’s because the entire focus of Volvo’s marketing is on SUVs, so, for now at least, if you want a Volvo you’ll have to buy an SUV.

Whether or not Volvo will be back with electric saloons and estates remains to be seen, but even if we do see an ES90, ES60, EV60 and EV90 in the future, it does seem short-sighted to drop the ICE and Hybrid models before replacements are in place.

Not only that, but if Volvo is keen to ‘help’ the environment by only building EVs, surely lighter and smaller saloons and estates are the way to go rather than big, heavy SUVs?