Volvo pinning EV hopes on sleeker SUVs

The next generation of Volvo SUVs is set to be unrecognisable from today's line-up as the Scandinavian brand goes electric with a range of sleeker, more streamlined 'coupe' models.

The Swedish car-maker says its unashamed drive to produce more and more high-riding vehicles to satisfy demand is at odds with its plans for half of all sales to be all-electric vehicles by 2025, due to the abysmal aerodynamic performance of SUVs.

Therefore, a move to a slipperier design language has been deemed essential by Volvo engineers as the more aerodynamic a vehicle is, the longer its pure-electric range becomes.

Speaking to Brit mag

“Moving into electrification gives us an opportunity to rethink what cars are. We’re more open to not just repeating what we’ve done before but also looking at opportunities both in bigger and smaller cars,” Page explained.

“As a design team we’re always exploring beyond the obvious, and of course with electric vehicles it brings opportunities and challenges in terms of aerodynamics and balancing with people’s needs in terms of space.”

In the future Volvo vehicles, including its SUVs, will look almost unrecognisable to the current range of models, with traditional blocky styling abandoned in favour of what Page describes as 'clean aerodynamics'.

Instead of shapes that maximise space, Volvo's future SUVs will have sleek fastback shapes designed to boost aerodynamic performance, with SUV-coupes becoming the norm.

The first vehicle to emerge with some of the company's new aerodynamic thinking will be the electrified third-generation XC90 that's expected to have far more rakish styling than today's model when it arrives in 2021.

Volvo design will then get even more radical as more advanced air-bending techniques are incorporated into future model designs.