The current Volvo XC90 will keep on keeping on, although it’s unclear for how long and in how many markets it will continue to be sold alongside its replacement.
With the new range-topping crossover — possibly known as Embla, if trademark filings and reports are correct — to be offered solely with electric motors, the second-generation XC90 will be given an updated design and, possibly, technology.
Speaking with Automotive News Europe, Hakan Samuelsson, the automaker’s outgoing CEO, noted this was the “advantage of building the new one in Charleston” in South Carolina.
“Why should we close down the old one in Torslanda when you still have a market for hybrids, especially in America and China,” he continued.
The Embla is expected to be revealed this year.
It’s not known if the revised XC90 will also be sold in other markets outside of Europe, such as Australia.
At present the XC90 is built in Volvo’s Torslanda factory, just outside Gothenburg in Sweden, and has been in production since 2015.
A forced-induction four-cylinder engine petrol mill is the only engine choice in the second-generation XC90, but this can be aided by mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid systems.
Given the original XC90 remained on sale for over 15 years, the current car could conceivably stick around for more than a few years.
Indeed, Volvo has prior experience keeping a car in production along with its successor. When the second-generation XC90 was launched, the company moved the first-generation model’s production equipment to China.
There, the original crossover was renamed XC Classic, and was sold for a year or two at a price below that of its replacement.
Concept Recharge 
When the XC90’s replacement is launched later this year, it will be the brand’s first electric-only model and will have styling closely related to the 2021 Concept Recharge.
It will also be an important milestone as the brand is aiming to completely ditch internal-combustion engines globally by 2030. Volvo expects to derive at least half of its sales from EVs by 2025.
MORE: Everything Volvo XC90
