Volvo CEO foresees SUV share growing to 75%

Volvo expects SUVs to account for an even higher percentage of the automaker's global sales after it adds a model below the XC40.

"With the addition of a smaller SUV it will probably be higher," CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Automotive News Europe. "Maybe it will be three-quarters SUVs in the future."

He didn't give a time frame for when the SUV share would reach 75 percent. Through 11 months, SUVs accounted for 71 percent of Volvo's global sales, up from 63 percent during the same period last year.

Volvo confirmed in October it would build a small full-electric SUV, which will be a crucial part of its effort to get half of its global sales from battery-powered vehicles by 2025 and potentially become an electric-only brand by 2030.

"There is a clear trend toward small premium SUVs. It is a very successful segment, Samuelsson said.

The model, which Samuelsson said would wear the XC-badge, will use the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) that Volvo helped parent Zhejiang Geely Holding develop.

"To really have the right cost structure on that we have to share the architecture," Samuelsson told ANE. "We have a possibility to have a really competitive car in that size, also when it comes to profitability."