The third success story
As a Volvo, how do you replace your large SUV that is in great demand among not the most progressive part of your buyer group? Exactly, you don’t tamper too much with the appearance. The successor to the Volvo XC90 therefore builds strongly on well-known shapes from the outside, but takes a completely different tack in every other area.
Volvo has been shooting straight into the sales rose with the XC90 since 2002. The first-generation XC90 did so well that Volvo awarded its X5 competitor a 12-year career. To put that into perspective: its rival from BMW was even completely renewed twice during the life of the original XC90. The current Volvo XC90 was given the tough job of matching the success of its predecessor. What turned out? The second XC90 was also a resounding success. The now eight-year-old SUV is logically not the international sales topper of the brand – which is credit to the XC60 – but last year the XC90 just claimed third place in Volvo’s sales statistics. Not bad for an SUV of a respectable age that operates in the higher echelons of the car market. Yet everything comes to an end. To use the words of Axl Rose: Nothing lasts forever, and we both know hearts can change. That piece of hard rock poetry from the monster hit ‘November rain’ applies remarkably strongly to the successor to the XC90, which Volvo will probably present this year.
Design philosophy
It is mainly the heart of Volvo’s largest SUV that is changing. But let’s talk about the appearance first, because the Swedes don’t leave that untouched either. Volvo and Polestar now share the same design philosophy, but the two brands are growing apart in terms of design. Where Polestar designs its future models based on the Precept Concept, Volvo applies a new house style for its newcomers, which is inspired by the design of the Recharge Concept from 2021. You have to forget the station wagon-like appearance of that study model, because the new XC90 will simply be a traditional and therefore high SUV. That’s more than an assumption, because in the database of the Japanese patent office, AutoWeek has already turned up the patent drawings of the XC90 successor, on which we have based the digital drawings on these pages.
Volvo Embla (Illustration: Larson)
We can well imagine that when you see these images you think that it concerns a thorough facelift of the current model, but that is certainly not the case. The shape of the windows, especially at the rear side windows, is too different for that. The same applies to the hood, because it also differs completely from that of the well-known XC90 and that is also extremely unusual for a facelift. The front and rear are completely different and the most interesting in terms of design. Although the sloping and strongly pinched windows of the Recharge Concept do not reach the production stage, the rear lights of that study model do. The XC90 successor will receive C-shaped lighting with elements placed separately from those light parts, which will be placed next to the rear window. The license plate moves from the tailgate to the rear bumper and we see recessed handles in the doors. At the front, the Recharge influences are also evident. Just look at the shape of the headlights. The closed nose brings us together with non-existing tailpipes to the new heart of Volvo’s largest SUV: it only gets fully electric powertrains.
potent
The electrical hardware that Volvo uses in the successor to the XC90 is certainly not the least. Nothing is officially known about it yet, but we already know that the XC90 shares its technology with the upcoming Polestar 3. AutoWeek has previously uncovered the first specifications of that electric SUV. Those are not nice. The Polestar 3 will be available in at least two Long Range versions, each with a 111 kWh battery. The least potent has two electric motors, which together deliver 489 hp and 840 Nm, which allows the SUV to reach 100 km/h in about 5 seconds. More interesting is the range, because it is a generous 610 kilometers. The more powerful second version has two electric motors of together 519 hp and 910 (!) Nm and zooms to 100 km/h in less than 5 seconds. This Performance variant comes up to 560 kilometers on a charge. For the Volvo XC90 we are focusing on comparable powertrains, although it cannot be ruled out that there will also be versions with a smaller battery pack.
New soul, new name
As you may have noticed, we are not putting the name XC90 on the new SUV in this preview. Volvo is moving away from its well-known model naming strategy, where SUVs have ‘XC’ in the model name, followed by a number that indicates the placement in the range. The Swedes would soon come up with real model names and it was rumored that the successor of the XC90 would be called ‘Embla’. What seems? Volvo chooses the name EX90. But there is more remarkable news. The outgoing XC90 may be used as an XC90 in a select number of markets and will be sold next to its successor. “Why should we stop with the XC90 when there is still demand for hybrids, especially in the United States and China?” said CEO Håkan Samuelsson. That refreshed, old XC90 just rolls off the line in Torslanda, Sweden. The ‘Embla’ will soon come from the American Charleston.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl