Detroit show: Volvo previews S90

VOLVO Cars has provided the first official look at its future flagship sedan, the S90, with a pair of shady images showing the car’s silhouette.

The darkened images do not reveal a lot, but show that the BMW 5 Series competitor will have the same Thor’s hammer-style LED headlights as the recently launched XC90 SUV.

A second image focuses on the S90’s tail end with its B-shaped taillights separated by a large Volvo badge.

Images of an S90 scale model last month leaked online, showing a design in keeping with recent Volvo concepts, notably the striking Concept Coupe from the 2013 Frankfurt motor show.

The S90 will replace the slow-selling S80 sedan at the top of Volvo’s passenger-car line-up, ending the 10-year run of the model that shared its platform with the XC60 SUV, as well as Ford’s previous-generation Mondeo and the Land Rover Freelander from the days of the Blue Oval’s Premier Automotive Group.

Underpinning the S90 will be Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) shared with the XC90, meaning it will likely use the same new-generation four-cylinder-only powertrains, as well as a flagship plug-in hybrid variant dubbed the T8.

A wagon version is also on the horizon, possibly taking cues from the stunning Concept Estate shown at last year’s Geneva motor show.

The only information that Volvo provided about the S90 when it teased the images during a presentation at Microsoft’s global headquarters in Redmond, Washington, was that it would make its debut at the Detroit motor show in January.

Volvo has previously said that the XC90 SUV will be the oldest model in its line-up within two years, with all models set to be replaced by 2019.

An all-new S60/V60 range is on the way, as is a new XC60, all underpinned by the SPA architecture.

Future compact models including the next-gen V40 and mooted XC40 will use the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) being developed with Chinese parent company Geely.

The best-selling Volvo in Australia is the XC60, which has found 1409 homes to the end of October, representing an 8.6 per cent jump over the same period in 2014.

The new XC90 has had a slow-ish start since it was launched in August, with 357 sold. Year to date, XC90 sales are down by 46 per cent, but last month’s tally of 92 units was up by a whopping 922 per cent on October 2014, although that was off a low base with limited stock of the old model .