The Volvo ES90, which was revealed in March, has been slated for Malaysia, with the all-electric sedan set to make its way here sometime in early 2026. However, unlike the SUV equivalent, with the new EX90 and facelifted XC90 offering Malaysian buyers alternatives in terms of powertrain choices, the ES90 will fly the sedan flag alone when the time comes, as there are no plans to retain the ICE variation here.
According to Volvo Car Malaysia & Thailand MD Chris Wailes, the 2025 S90 facelift, which has been heavily reworked for its second refresh, will not be introduced to replace the existing S90 facelift, of which stocks were exhausted early this year and for which there is no longer any CKD production in 2025. Despite the sole approach, Wailes is optimistic about how Malaysian buyers will perceive the ES90 when the time comes.
“It’s very different to what’s available in the market today, and I think that should hopefully give customers that typically buy sedans, of which there are a lot in Malaysia, to opportunity to rethink that something like this would work a little bit better for them,” he said.
Given his mention that Malaysian customers are still looking for sedans, we asked him if there were any plans for the automaker to fill the gaps that will be left by the departure of the S60 and, now, the S90. “We’ve got a lot of customers that have in the past bought not just the current generation of S60, but previous generations as well, and we’re not just going to let them disappear,” he said.
“In the product plan all the way past 2030, there’s a lot coming. Much is going on behind the scenes, and there’s a lot of news that’s going to come over the next months and years. Watch this space is the short answer,” he added.
One certainty is that the Malaysian market has seen the last of the station wagon, or estate, in the local product portfolio, at least in the foreseeable future. “For the short term, yes, that’s no longer going to feature. However, we will need to recalibrate that and we will then look at something new that’s slightly different to what we have today, but will give, I think, the consumer a lot more than what is there currently,” he said.
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