Volvo has no plans to change its current strategy of making electric cars like its internal combustion models, Florian Mockenhaupt, the automaker's senior manager of external design, told Australia's Drive.
“Everything is still right it's like a Volvo,” Mockenhaupt said, adding that Volvo is still pursuing aerodynamic drag reductions that could help develop an EV. But it won't use unusual designs like the Mercedes-Benz EQS, which now sports a fake grille and hood ornament in an attempt to look like other Mercedes sedans.
2025.5 Volvo XC90 and 2025 Volvo EX90
Maintaining the family look that connects future Volvo models to their predecessors is important, Mockenhaupt says, but there are also practical considerations. Designs that are too sleek may compromise interior space, he noted.
“We know people like an open interior, so you'll never see a Volvo XC90 or EX90 with a big roof, because it doesn't match our customers' expectations,” said Mockenhaupt. The EX90 3-row SUV emphasizes that approach with a relaunch of styling that maintains the proportions of a conventional SUV. Some of the same design elements also carry over to the smaller Volvo EX30, which has been delayed in the US due to new costs.
2025 Volvo EX30 electric SUV (single engine, Cloud Blue)
Volvo recently announced that its plan will not be all-electric by 2030 as originally planned, but it still expects 90% of the cars it sells to be plug-in by then. Plug-in hybrids will continue to play an important role in Volvo's lineup, along with more EVs.
Among those new EVs will be the EX60, which goes electric with the XC60 SUV launching in 2026 that will begin construction on a new architecture called the SPA3, and the ES90 sedan. They will give Volvo's design team more opportunities to prove that this design approach is the right one.