Volvo’s compact S40 and V50 have already been canceled, and the long-term future of the C70 convertible—which shares a platform with those two cars—was put into jeopardy today: The company announced that the factory producing it will close at the end of 2013. The Uddavella factory is owned jointly by Pininfarina and Volvo, but Volvo takes sole ownership when the cooperative agreement expires in two years. In a statement released today, CEO Stefan Jacoby said “The low volumes in the Uddevalla plant do not justify continued production.”
Company sources have told us that it is possible for Volvo to continue building the C70 at another facility, but a decision about its survival hasn’t yet been made. But Jacoby’s own remark in today’s press release seems to seal the current car’s fate. “We will now look into when a next-generation Volvo convertible can be on the market and where it should be manufactured,” he said, leading us to believe that production of the current car will end when the factory is shuttered.
When the cancellation of the S40 was announced in June, a spokesperson told us that the C70 and the compact C30 hatchback had never been intended to be much more than niche products. But the C70′s sales weren’t sufficient to justify an entire factory, and indeed the sales numbers may be too slim to justify even “niche” status for Volvo and its Chinese parent Geely.
While it will probably be many years until a new Volvo convertible arrives—if one does at all—we expect that it would use the automaker’s upcoming Scalable Platform Architecture. This new platform underpinned Volvo’s Concept You, which debuted at this year’s Frankfurt auto show.
