Electric Volvos of the future will be named differently than their outgoing combustion-engined stablemates. Volvo’s shift into the electric age will reportedly be marked with a distinct change in the Swedish firm’s model naming conventions.

Volvo is drawing a line in the sand as it enters the age of electric cars and it will mark the shift with a change in how it names its models.

Earlier this year, the Gothenburg-based luxury car manufacturer announced its intention to become an all-electric brand by 2030 and with all its electric models to be exclusively available online. Internal combustion engines are dying a noisy death and electric mobility is the future!

In an interview with Autocar, Volvo’s CEO, Hakan Samuelsson, confirmed that the next generation of electric Volvo models won’t follow the familiar alphanumeric naming convention that we are used to i.e. XC40, XC60, XC90, for example. Instead, and unlike other luxury brands, such as BMW (iX), Mercedes-Benz (EQ) and Volkswagen (ID), ew electric Volvos will feature a phonetic name with more meaning and character.

“If you look at cars today, all of them are very ‘engineeredly’ named: XC, T8, All-Wheel-Drive, double-overhead cams – it’s all specification on the rear of many cars. We’re talking about a totally new architecture, a new-generation of born-electric, all-electric cars with central computing,” Samuelsson said. “It’s good and clear to mark that this is a new beginning, and that’s why we’re not going to have numbers and letters, an engineering type of name. We’re going to give them a name as you give a newborn child a name.”

Even though the Recharge nomenclature, as seen on the forthcoming XC40 Recharge (which is due to arrive in SA in August 2021) still combines the model name upon which it’s based, Volvo’s forthcoming all-new electric flagship SUV is expected to receive a phonetic name.

This new electric flagship SUV, codenamed XC100, will be built on a new EV platform that will spawn future electric Volvos and its name will mark the beginning of a new electric era for Volvo.

The recent reveal of the Concept Recharge was a significant one in that it highlights what to expect in terms of the packaging of future electric cars from Volvo and it’s totally conceivable that the brand’s next flagship electric SUV will be used to set the bar in terms of technology and design which will undoubtedly filter down into every other electric Volvo model that comes to market.

The jury is out on what the new electric premium SUV will be named. The Volvo Förstfödda perhaps?

What would you call it?

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