Volvo Car USA reveals the details of its new pricing and options strategies for the 2021 model year now getting under way, plus a mild facelift for 90-Series sedans and wagons, a new name and badging – called Recharge – for Volvo’s lineup of plug-in hybrids, and future Volvo battery-electric vehicles.
“We’ve not taken a lot of pricing” for 2021, says Anders Robertson, product manager-Volvo Car USA. That is, Volvo is keeping sticker-price increases to a minimum for 2021.
A key move has Volvo making standard across the board some previously optional features such as its BLIS system (Blind Spot Information System), which also has Steer Assist and Cross Traffic Alert with Autobrake.
Volvo adds LED headlights with Active Bending Lights and Auto-Highbeam to all models at no extra charge, Robertson says.
In addition, Volvo makes standard a communication safety feature that alerts other Volvos in the vicinity when a Volvo driver encounters driving conditions that are slippery enough to engage traction control, or if another Volvo’s hazard lights are lit, either by the driver or if the lights are turned on automatically in a crash.
Where 2021 prices do rise, Robertson says the company tries to partly or even entirely make up for the increase by expanding standard content. For example, he says the sticker price for the ’21 S60 T6 AWD Momentum trim and equipment package starts at $43,245, including $995 destination. That’s up $1,700 vs. the ’20 model.
But with options on a typically equipped model, the sticker price increases only $1,350, to $47,335 with destination charges. Meanwhile, the ’21 model gets new features, including wood inlays, fog lights and LED headlights, Robertson says.
And there’s no sticker-price increase for the ’21 XC40 T5 Momentum, at $36,695 with destination. The typically equipped model, at $43,560 for 2021, actually decreases by $1,400, Robertson says, even though the ’21 model gets heated rear seats, fog lights, LED headlights, navigation and Care Key, which allows the owner to preset a maximum speed, often for teenage drivers.
The most outwardly visible change for the 2021 model year is a conservative midcycle facelift for what Volvo calls its “low-90s” cars – that is, the flagship S90 sedan, V90 wagon and crossover-styled V90 Cross Country wagon.
The low-90s are “low” in the sense they’re not raised like Volvo’s XC crossovers, which Volvo defines as SUVs.
The S90 flagship sedan gets a new front fascia that looks wider and lower, with a new grille and new fog lights. Jung Hyun Lee, lead exterior designer in the U.S. market for Volvo Car Group, says the look for 2021 is intended to be “stately” and “proud.”
At the rear are new taillights, and the trunk lid gets a new rear edge that acts as a spoiler. To hint at future electrification of the entire Volvo lineup, the designer says, “the exhaust tips are hidden behind the rear bumper.”
The design for the V90 wagon essentially is identical, except for the wagon body style and redesigned, upright, Volvo-style taillights that extend into the D-pillar, Lee says.
The V90 Cross Country facelift (pictured below) gets a different exterior change from the 2020 model year than the other facelifted 2021 models, he says. The V90 Cross Country gets a “tougher-looking” front fascia with a more prominent “chin,” Lee says.
The updated exterior styling on the V90 Cross Country also gets rid of some embellishments, such as black trim on the door side panels. Lee says, “We made it even simpler, kept it super-simple – more of a Scandinavian design approach.”
