Volvo will continue building the XC90 due to continued demand.
Its all-electric replacement arrives later this year.
The Volvo XC90 might be the closest thing to the exact opposite of the direction the Scandinavian automaker is embarking on but it’s too good to be dropped for the moment.
Sales of the large premium SUV increased last year and although its replacement is only months away, Volvo will invest in the XC90 one last time to freshen it up.
“We will even look into upgrading it so it looks a bit better,” Samuelsson added. “But, technology wise, we’ll invest in the new generation of all-electric cars.”
The XC90’s replacement, reportedly called the Embla, will be assembled at Volvo’s Charleston South Carolina. Production is planned for late 2022 and will begin well before the XC90 is phased out.
“That’s an advantage of building the new one in Charleston [South Carolina],” Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Automotive News Europe. “Why should we close down the old one in Torslanda when you still have a market for hybrids, especially in America and China.”
This isn’t the first Volvo’s sold two generations of the same vehicle at the same time as both the first and second generations of the XC90 were available simultaneously between 2015 and 2016.