The Volvo XC70 is again, however this time round it’s a not jacked high-riding wagon, however a plug-in hybrid crossover.
The XC70 is the primary product from Volvo to experience on the brand new Scalable Modular Structure (SMA) designed primarily for “prolonged vary plug-in hybrid” drivetrains.
Newly reinstalled CEO Hakan Samuelsson says the brand new XC70 presents a “extremely enticing different to clients who usually are not but prepared for absolutely electrical vehicles”.
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Drivetrain and battery particulars have but to be launched, however the firm claims the XC70 has an EV vary of 200km when utilizing China’s beneficiant CLTC commonplace.
Equally Volvo is holding its powder dry relating to the XC70’s dimensions, with the corporate merely stating it’s “barely bigger and extra spacious” than the 4.7m-long XC60.
The XC70 shall be obtainable to order later this 12 months in China, and Volvo says it can discover “potential extra markets at a later stage”. Presumably extra particulars concerning the automobile shall be launched nearer to its full launch.
Just like the all-electric ES90 sedan and EX90 crossover, the XC70 has a grille-less entrance finish that includes the most recent interpretation of the Thor’s hammer headlight graphic.
Alongside the aspect, the XC70 has flush-fitting door handles and frameless home windows. Whereas on the rear, the model’s signature hockey stick tail-lights attain all the way in which as much as the roof.
Again in 2021 Volvo was one of many first “legacy” automakers to decide to an electric-only vary, promising to promote its final car with an inner combustion engine by 2030. In Australia the model was much more bold, claiming it could go EV-only by 2026.
Whereas the market share for electrical automobiles continues to develop, particularly in Europe and China, their uptake hasn’t been fairly as quick as many automakers had initially envisioned. Volvo has now revised its goal, hoping to have electrified automobiles — plug-in hybrid and full electrical — account for 90 per cent of worldwide gross sales by 2030.
Clearly the launch of an all-new plug-in hybrid mannequin in 2025 wasn’t a part of Volvo’s planning at the start of the last decade. With the XC70, not solely is Volvo reacting to drivetrain preferences, however based on Mr Samuelsson, it’s also “instance of regionalisation, the place we adapt to the native market wants”.
Following on from the EM90 folks mover, the XC70 is second Volvo mannequin designed primarily with China in thoughts.
The XC70 identify has been dormant because the mid-2010s. Initially launched in 1997 as a high-riding, all-wheel drive variant of the V70 wagon patterned after the extremely in style Subaru Outback primarily based on Liberty wagon.
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Early 2000s XC70
Branding differed from market to market, with some calling the lifted the Volvo wagon the V70 Cross Nation, and others the V70 XC. It wasn’t till after the launch and success of the XC90 crossover the corporate lastly settled on the XC70 identify.
Beginning in 2016, Volvo simplified its mannequin naming construction across the 40-, 60- and 90-series, eliminating the likes of the V70 and S80. It additionally reserved the XC prefix for its SUV-like crossovers, with lifted wagons reverting to the Cross Nation moniker.
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