Volvo XC90 to be updated and sell ALONGSIDE its electric Volvo Embla ‘replacement’

Volvo is planning to give the XC90 a bit of a facelift and continue to sell it alongside its ‘replacement’ – the new electric Volvo Embla.

We did wonder, when Volvo announced last year it was updating the XC90 T8 Recharge plug-in hybrid with a bigger battery for longer range – and additional power – if that meant it wasn’t going in to the Volvo history bin in 2022 as expected?

After all, why go to the trouble of updating the powertrain in a car due to be binned and replaced with the, very different, Volvo Embla? Did that mean Volvo plans to sell the current XC90- alongside the new Volvo Embla? Well, it seems it does.

Speaking to Automotive News Europe, Volvo boss Hakan Samuelsson has confirmed that the current XC90 will remain in production as a hybrid and plug-in hybrid and be sold alongside the new Embla, with the Embla built in the US and the XC90 in Sweden. Samuelsson said:

Why should we close down the old one (XC90) in Torslanda when you still have a market for hybrids, especially in America and China? We will even look into upgrading it so it looks a bit better, but, technology-wise, we will invest in the new generation of all-electric cars.

With sales of over 100,000 XC90s in 2021, there’s a lot of sense in giving the XC90 a bit of a cosmetic tweak – following last year’s technology tweak – to freshen it up and keep it selling, at least until sales of the new Volvo Embla exceed those of the XC90.

And that could take a while.