Volvo Car Australia has been forced to backtrack on promises not to remove safety equipment from its cars.
Australian-bound versions of the petrol-powered XC40 and all versions of the XC60 will temporarily be missing certain safety features due to semiconductor shortages.
These features are part of the Driver Awareness Package which includes blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and rear collision warning and mitigation.
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XC60
“When we advised our retail network [of the missing safety features] the expected period was seven weeks but as of today that has already improved by two weeks,” said a Volvo Car Australia spokesperson.
Customers currently have four different options they can choose from if they ordered their vehicle before dealers were notified.
They can select a Volvo genuine accessory of retail value up to $1100, or have $850 reduced from the purchase price of their vehicle.
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XC40
Customers can alternatively defer their order until the safety features return or cancel their order altogether.
The Volvo Car Australia spokesperson said customers are “best advised to discuss with their local Volvo retailer and talk through all of the options available to them”.
Until now Volvo hadn’t removed any features from its vehicles due to semiconductor shortages.
A number of other carmakers, including Volkswagen, Skoda, and Peugeot have deleted certain safety features on particular models due to semiconductor shortages.
BMW was also affected but recently began rectifying its semiconductor-related specification changes to its models.
BMW Australia head of product and market planning Brendan Michel said the changes have started coming online since late last year, with some models returning to normal specification by the second quarter of 2023.
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