Another Volvo is going all-electric and will feature the latest in LiDAR and autonomous driving technology.
The next-generation Volvo XC90, which will be revealed in 2022, will come only with electric powertrains.
All models will use laser imaging, detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology developed by Luminar, plus an autonomous driving computer powered by the Nvidia Drive Orin system-on-a-chip.
It’ll also feature a Highway Pilot feature developed in-house with software company Zenseact, allowing for autonomous driving on highways where legal.
“Volvo Cars is and always has been a leader in safety. It will now define the next level of car safety,” said Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson.
“By having this hardware as standard, we can continuously improve safety features over the air and introduce advanced autonomous drive systems, reinforcing our leadership in safety.”
The company says the technology, over time, will increasingly intervene to prevent collisions rather than simply warning the driver of immediate threats.
The continuous evolution of this technology is part of Volvo’s long-term goal of a zero-collision future.
The next-generation XC90 will also include back-up systems for functions like steering and braking so that the hardware is ready for unsupervised autonomous driving.
2022 Volvo XC60 
Volvo confirmed earlier this month the successor to the smaller XC60 would also be all-electric.
Production is expected to begin in 2024.
Both models are expected to use the new SPA 2 architecture, which Volvo has already announced.
The company, however, has remained tight-lipped on what kind of performance or electric range we can expect from the next-generation crossovers.
Volvo has previously stated half of its sales will come from all-electric models by 2025 with the remainder being petrol-electric hybrids. It has pledged to only sell electric vehicles by 2030.
The switch to all-electric power means it’ll be one of three confirmed Volvo models to only feature electric powertrains, along with the next XC60 and the upcoming C40 Recharge.
The latter is arriving in Australia by the end of 2022, though its XC40 Recharge Pure Electric sibling will arrive in the third quarter of 2021.
The current, second-generation XC90 arrived in Australia in 2015.
While the first-generation model offered a choice of five- and six-cylinder engines and even a Yamaha-developed V8, the current XC90 has only offered a range of turbocharged four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines.
The option of extra performance comes not from more cylinders but from the addition of a supercharger (the ‘twincharged’ T6) or a plug-in hybrid system (the Recharge Plug-In Hybrid).
