Volvo is looking to a future without estate cars, turning its back on what has become a ‘niche’ body shape that dates back 70 years in the Swedish company’s heritage.
While unveiling its all-new ES90 electric saloon, its boss confirmed plans to dump estates for good with the intention of focusing on more popular body styles, namely SUVs.
With Volvo synonymous with the station-wagon body, traditionalists are bound to be unhappy with the move.
After all, it was way back in 1953 when Volvo debuted the Duett, its original estate model that was marketed as ‘two cars in one’ – for both work and leisure – thanks to its extended proportions.
Since then, more than six million Volvo estates have been built and sold. The 260-Series made estates popular in UK in the 1970s, and cars like the 740 and 760 continued the rise through 1980s and early 1990s.
So, as Volvo joins the list of car makers putting all its eggs in SUV and hatchback baskets, we take a look at the other manufacturers that have already culled estates.
We also examine what has made sales of this once-popular family car wane in recent years, and reveal how the big-booted body shape could be saved by the electric revolution.
Volvo CEO Jim Rowan said the brand needs to ‘make a choice’ about the future and margins of the estate car. If Volvo truly does axe the estate this time, what other estates can survive?
Volvo’s estate legacy could be about to come to an end
Speaking at the ES90 launch in Sweden last week, Volvo CEO Jim Rowan confirmed that the brand will focus on SUVs and saloons.
When asked whether he could see a future without a traditional Volvo estate car, Rowan replied: ‘Yes. Because I think [the market has] changed, right?
‘It’s expensive to bring different models to the market, and it’s expensive to keep those models in the market.
‘So, we need to make a choice: rather than bring out a [new] V90 for example, are we better to position that car in a slightly different way?
‘So we have the Black Editions, we have the Cross Country editions – we now have different editions of the same base car.’
The key reason behind this? The bottom line.
Explaining this, Rowan said: ‘It’s much, much cheaper, and much more cost effective for us to drive more volume through that same platform and that same form factor.’
However, it’s not the first time Volvo has said its moving on from estate cars…
In 2023, Volvo UK announced it was removing its only remaining estates – V60 and V90 – from Britain’s showrooms.
A spokesperson told This is Money at the time: ‘We continue to rapidly transform our product offer, which means not only moving towards full electrification, but also shifting to new platforms and technologies across all our cars.
‘We will naturally need to evolve and consolidate our line-up as we prioritise fully electric cars and make this technological transition.
‘As a result, we have removed further models from the UK line-up. These include the S60, V60 and V90.’
While the decision was for just for the UK market at the time, Volvo said it was because ‘appetite for our saloon and estate models has fallen to very low levels’.
But that decision didn’t last long, as we’ll cover shortly.
Renault’s Megane estate offering was a cheaper option for cost-conscious buyers but got the family from A to B in style still
Other estates going to the grave
Volvo is perhaps the most noticeable loss to the estate car segment, not least because the Scandinavian manufacturer was one of the most famous estate car makers in the world.
But Volvo won’t be the first car manufacturer to stop making estates.
Alfa Romeo confirmed as far back as 2017 that there would no estate version of its family saloon models.
The ‘Sportwagon’ variant was culled because Alfa bosses believed potential buyers would get their fix from their SUVs.
‘We decided not to do a Giulia Sportwagon,’ said Alfredo Altavilla, chief operating officer of Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles.
‘Do we really need it if the Stelvio SUV [below] drives that well? Maybe not. With our fine-tuning, the Stelvio can capture all the people who would otherwise have been interested in the SW.’
Renault is another huge manufacturer that changed the course of its estate car offerings when the internal-combustion-engine Megane was replaced with the new E-Tech electric variant.
The hatchback reborn for the electric era is without an estate option.
With a price range of £18,570 to £33,490, the previous-generation Megane estate was a good lower/mid-market option for families, and those who also commuted frequently.
On the flip-side, Volkswagen’s latest Passat launched last year will no longer be sold as a saloon. Instead, it will exclusively be available as an estate, due to customer feedback.
| CAR SEGMENT | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini (city car) | 3.6% | 3.4% | 2.7% | 2.9% | 2.7% | 2.4% | 1.8% | 0.8% | 1.0% | 0.8% | 0.7% | 0.8% |
| Supermini | 35.9% | 35.7% | 35.2% | 32.4% | 29.5% | 30.8% | 29.7% | 31.2% | 31.2% | 30.4% | 29.8% | 27.5% |
| Lower medium (small family hatchback/saloon) | 26.0% | 26.1% | 27.2% | 27.3% | 28.7% | 27.9% | 27.4% | 28.0% | 27.3% | 27.7% | 28.2% | 26.7% |
| Upper medium (large family hatchback/saloon) | 9.2% | 9.2% | 9.5% | 9.5% | 9.6% | 8.1% | 7.3% | 6.4% | 6.4% | 7.0% | 6.1% | 6.1% |
| Executive | 5.3% | 4.9% | 4.8% | 4.8% | 4.8% | 4.6% | 4.1% | 2.8% | 2.0% | 1.7% | 1.3% | 1.3% |
| Luxury saloon | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Dual purpose (SUV) | 11.0% | 11.8% | 13.5% | 16.3% | 18.1% | 21.2% | 24.3% | 25.4% | 26.9% | 27.0% | 28.6% | 32.6% |
| MPV | 6.7% | 6.7% | 5.0% | 4.7% | 4.4% | 3.1% | 3.2% | 2.4% | 1.6% | 3.8% | 3.6% | 3.9% |
| Sports cars | 2.1% | 1.7% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 1.6% | 1.9% | 2.9% | 3.4% | 1.4% | 1.6% | 0.9% |
| Source: SMMT |
Popularity of SUVs means estates have taken a hit
The car market – like so many others – is based on trending tastes and fashion. And the estate car is officially no longer fashionable.
Instead, its SUVs that are booming.
The rise of sport utility vehicles in Britain is something we’ve covered in detail at This is Money, and it’s a phenomenon that keeps growing.
This year SUVs became Britain’s best-selling type of new car for the first time on record.
The list of top 10 best-selling cars of 2024 was overrun with SUV models as the craze continues to gather pace
Showing the diversity of SUVs in today’s market are the two models pictured – the wide scope for what’s classified as an ‘SUV’ or ‘crossover’ allows many cars to be slapped with the badge
And a third of new cars entering the road last year were ‘Chelsea Tractors’, dethroning superminis, which had topped sales charts for decades.
SUVs accounted for 33 per cent of all registrations in 2024, up from just 12 per cent a decade earlier, according to Britain’s auto trade body, The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Eight of the ten most commonly bought new cars in 2024 were crossovers or 4X4s as once-popular conventional hatchbacks and saloons fell down the pecking order.
Estate cars have been pushed aside even more, with SMMT stats showing estates accounted for just 110,000 new car registrations in the UK in 2023.
Despite its estate legacy, Volvo has twice taken this decision due to the company wanting to ‘prioritise fully electric cars’ (pictured is the Volvo P220 and Volvo P210 Amazon)
The V60 (left) and V90 (right) were first culled in 2023 but returned one year later on customer demand. Now Volvo’s CEO says he can see a future without a traditional Volvo estate car
Could estates have a resurgence? What drivers are saying
Telling people they can’t have something is a near foolproof way to guarantee they want it more and this seems to be the case with the estate car. At least that’s what Volvo found…
When the brand first announced they were culling the V60 and V90 in 2023, demand suddenly spiked, with buyers popping out of the woodwork wanting to have a slice of sophisticated estate life.
Volvo had to do a U-turn and reintroduced the V60 and V90 just one year later, all because of a resurgence in interest in estate cars.
The car maker said in June 2024: ‘We removed the V60 and V90 from sale in the UK last August amid falling appetite for estate cars.
‘While this remains a long-term trend, we have seen a resurgence for our estate products in recent months and have decided to reintroduce the V60 and V90 to our UK portfolio in response to this. We will begin taking orders next month.
‘When operating in a fast-moving industry, we continually re-evaluate our product portfolio to ensure we have the right mix to serve all our customers. As part of this process, it is not uncommon for us to remove certain models or derivatives from sale and reintroduce them later.
‘We were thrilled by the many comments from customers and media last year, with many stories and memories of how our estate cars have been a huge part of their lives. We look forward to helping create more!’
When Volvo first axed its estate cars it was only for the UK market, with saloon and estate models remaining in global production and being offered to customers in showrooms (pictured is the Volvo 960, 1990s)
Estate cars have been Volvo’s bread and butter for generations gone by (pictured is the Volvo P220 Amazon, 1960s)
And Volvo’s latest announcement could spark another protest from Britain’s drivers.
Already, there are many motorists taking to social platforms to lament the culling of the estate car to make room for more SUVs.
On Reddit user says they ‘couldn’t find a single new estate in the showroom’ in a thread called ‘There are no estates anywhere’.
A chorus of replies conclude it’s because of ‘the sad trend towards pushing people into SUVs’.
Another Reddit poster responded: ‘I’d argue most of these dumb little crossover things are completely boring by design, and actually not that practical,’ while another said it’s ‘a shame that the majority of people want these awful crossovers nowadays’.
Another longed a VW estate for posting: ‘Seen an [VW] Arteon shooting brake the other day, never thought I needed an estate until now.’
Why estate cars are ripe for an electric age
Estate cars – in theory – appear very suitable to adopt electric vehicle technology.
The combination of having an aerodynamic body and large platform in which to fit bigger batteries means they have the ideal characteristics for long-range EVs of the future.
And there are some manufacturers who are pursuing the estate car customers in this new electrified market.
The Audi A6 e-tron performance with top Edition 1 spec is a very attractive, luxury offering for estate buyers wanting an EV
Audi’s A6 e-Tron manages 435 miles of range and can add 186 miles of range in just 10 minutes at a 270kW rapid charger, giving families a long distance EV estate option.
BMW added a Touring estate to its i5 range in 2024, offering buyers a seriously luxurious electric estate car that’s perfect for holidays and weekend getaways.
Porsche’s Taycan Cross Turismo is, in most eyes, the ‘estate ‘version of the Taycan, offering Porsche buyers more room and family comfort than the normal Taycan, but with the performance stats Porsche is famous for.
A more muted option is the VW ID.7 Tourer which will scratch the itch of VW estate buyers wanting to switch to an EV.
Volkswagen’s ID.7 Tourer – an extended version of the flagship ID.7 saloon – is another sign that the family estate car could be having an electric resurgence
With five people onboard, there’s 605 litres in the boot and a ginormous 1,714 litres with only two people in the car. Estate cars provide huge amounts of space and practicality
The Tourer offers up to 1,714 litres of luggage space even in GTX form – the most powerful estate VW has ever made.
Peugeot also has a more affordable/ mid-market option with its 308 SW which starts from £33,065.00.
So, there is hope for the estate buyer even in today’s electrified market.
But will these offerings be enough to fight back against the SUV? That remains to be seen.
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