Volvo’s ‘World Premier’ is a bit of a damp squib

Volvo’s ‘World Premier’ – which we thought might be the first look at the 2015 XC90 – turns out to be a tie-up between the new XC60 and the DJ trio Swedish House Mafia.

We had been hoping – and, to a degree, expecting – that Volvo’s big ‘World Premier’ they’ve been teasing for today would be the new Volvo XC90, a long overdue replacement for the (still surprisingly good) current model which is now more than a decade old. But it’s not.

Instead, the big news is that the facelift Volvo XC60 is getting a global launch with Swedish House Mafia’s ditty ‘Leave the World Behind’ as its sound track.

It seems Volvo feels there is a connection between the band and its song and the Volvo range of XC SUV/Crossover models (apart from the fact they’re both Swedish).

According to Per Carleo, Volvo’s Marketing man:

All Volvo’s XC cars are designed around people’s wish to get out there and to leave your everyday life behind for a while. So we were thinking of people who really wanted to leave the world behind for a while and came to think of the members of Swedish House Mafia.

So, no new model just a ‘World Premiere’ of a song to use as a backing track for a new ad campaign.

But wouldn’t it have made more sense to use something the world knows, and not just Swedes? Perhaps they’d have been better going the obvious route and picking an Abba track? Perhaps ‘I’ve been waiting for you’ or ‘Take a Chance on Me’? Maybe not.

Shame, really. We were looking forward to a new Volvo.