The new Volvo S60
has been confirmed for the Malaysian market and the target launch period by
Volvo Car Malaysia (VCM) is the third quarter of 2019. The third-generation
midsize sedan by the Swedish brand was unveiled in June – it’s the first Volvo
to be made in the United States and global distribution will begin in the
spring of next year, which is Q2 2019.
Malaysia is Volvo’s
regional assembly hub, and the S60 will eventually roll off the plant in Shah
Alam for domestic consumption and exports to Thailand, but early batches could
be CBU imports, which is the typical style for VCM.
The
recently-concluded international press drive event had two variants of the BMW
3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class-rivalling sedan on the platter – the S60 T8
Twin Engine Polestar Engineered and the S60 T6 AWD R-Design that you see here.
It’s early days and
local variants have yet to be confirmed, but we’re not expecting the
Polestar-tweaked car – stuffed to the gills with branded kit such as Ohlins
adjustable suspension and Brembo six-pot brakes – to reach Malaysia as it will
be prohibitively expensive. The 405 hp/670 Nm plug-in hybrid is also produced
in limited numbers.
The T6 AWD is more
likely. The highest non-PHEV variant is powered by a 2.0 litre four-cylinder
Drive-E engine, which is under the hood of all S60s. In this guise, it gets a
turbocharger and a supercharger to make 310 hp and 400 Nm of torque. The
twincharged engined is mated to an Aisin-made eight-speed conventional
automatic transmission.
When local assembly
starts, we’re expecting a CKD T5 with 254 hp/350 Nm (FWD, just turbo) and
(non-Polestar) Twin Engine plug-in hybrid variants – the latter will of course
be dependent on CKD PHEV incentives by the government.
As usual, base Momentum,
luxury Inscription and sporty R-Design trim levels will be available globally,
but expect VCM to champion the latter for its most sporting model. That’s part
of a wider trend in the premium segment – see the popularity of M Sport and AMG
Line in otherwise far from sporting variants.
