2024 Volvo EX90 coming to Australia, XC90 facelift unconfirmed

Volvo’s electric SUV flagship will make its journey Down Under in late 2024, but it’s not clear if the facelifted version of the petrol-powered XC90 that will accompany it around the world will be next to it.

The updated XC90 has not yet been unveiled. When it launches, it will offer Volvo a petrol alternative to the EX90 in markets not yet ready for pure electric powertrains as it prepares to phase out internal combustion engines globally by 2030.

In Australia, however, the brand has committed to going all-electric by 2026.

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“The EX90 comes with a reskin [of the XC90]but I prefer not to take everything,” Stephen Connor, Managing Director of Volvo Car Australia, recently told the media.

Mr Connor said there may be an overlap between the last examples of the current XC90 to be sold in Australia and the first of the EX90, depending on how production ramps up.

By 2024, the current XC90 will be eight years old. When it comes to the end of Volvo’s internal combustion engine production in 2030, the bones of the petrol and plug-in hybrid XC90 will be 14 years old.

That’s a long time compared to the average luxury car, but not unusual for Volvo. The first-generation XC90 also lived 14 years, gaining a cult following among family buyers in the process.

His death in Australia will come sooner than in the rest of the world as the brand plans to sell only electric cars Down Under by 2026.

Although newcomers like Tesla, BYD and its corporate peers at Polestar are already all-electric, Volvo plans to be the first brand to go fully electric in Australia, having previously made petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrids -Options offered locally.

“We will not wait until 2030, we will not wait for the global strategy to come out. I made a proposal to Gothenburg the other day and we will be fully electric in Australia by 2026,” Mr Connor said.

MORE: Volvo Australia plans to be all-electric by 2026: full details