The successor to the hugely popular Volvo XC90 SUV is set to be unveiled in the last quarter of 2022, Volvo CEO Jim Rowan has confirmed to UK magazine Autocar. The new SUV flagship, as the brand’s first fully bespoke electric car and the first on a new platform, will have a “extremely important“ Play a role in the goal of selling 600,000 purely electric cars a year from 2025.
„Defined by the software“, as a brand spokesman says, the successor to the XC90 should “the beginning of a new era for safety and the company” represent. Volvo also confirmed that the new model should be given a real name instead of an alphanumeric designation. A recently filed trademark application suggests that the new Volvo SUV could be named Embla, after the name of the first woman in Norse mythology.
Before the electric car is unveiled later this year, Rowan plans to showcase the car’s innovative new technology at an event on September 21. This technology, which is expected to include next-generation safety features, will come standard on the flagship SUV and preview what will be available on other future Volvos.
Shown in 2021, the production-ready version of the Concept Recharge is Volvo’s long-awaited entry into the increasingly important full-size electric SUV segment, where most premium-oriented manufacturers have been making their debut electric cars in recent years have brought to market. Volvo’s already available pure electric vehicles, the XC40 Recharge and C40 Recharge coupé, are a segment lower and use the same CMA platform as the conventionally powered XC40.
The XC90 successor will use Volvo’s new SPA2 platform. This further developed version of the current architecture offers enough space for a wide range of combustion and pure electric powertrains. It should also serve as a basis for other Volvo models and vehicles from sibling brands of the parent company Geely.
“Less is more”
The Concept Recharge already gave a strong indication of how Volvo intends to ensure its new flagship EV retains the core characteristics of the XC90 while taking a whole new approach to exterior and interior design, as well as a host of advanced new technologies. Although the XC90 successor is to receive a radically different design, it should still bring a lot of space and practicality with it. The ‘less is more’ approach demonstrated by the concept car indicates an increased focus on minimalist design in Volvo’s new electric age, as well as a powertrain designed to minimize environmental impact.
Some of the more outlandish and futuristic features of the concept will certainly be toned down for production – the four detached seats, for example. However, the flat, skateboard-style architecture will, that’s for sure, offer a new level of interior space and flexibility, which concept designer Robin Page describes with a “Scandinavian living room feeling“ compared.
Volvo’s next SUV should be a small classic SUV, the manufacturer emphasizes. You’re supposed to sit high above the road, but the two-box silhouette with its more linear shapes is more reminiscent of classic Volvo station wagons like the 240, 940 and the V70. Former Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson has previously said that Volvo intends to gradually downsize its conventional range of sedans, such as the V60 and V90, acknowledging that “people really like high seating positions“.
The XC90 successor is therefore intended to blur the line between two segments in order to benefit from the popularity of SUVs on the one hand and to differentiate itself from its market competitors at the same time. Volvo designer Page called it “a new type of vehicle“, the “shows new and modern proportions that go hand in hand with increased versatility“.
Quelle: Autocar – Electric Volvo XC90 successor to be revealed later this year
