A new bunch of teasers of Volvo’s upcoming EM90 minivan sneakily compares it with the 70-year-old Volvo Duett, the Swedish company’s first MPV in portfolio.
The Duett – shown in the blurred halves of the teasers – went on sale in the distant year 1953. The automaker hinted that it could be used in multiple ways by both families and business owners. It took advantage of a frame-based chassis and shipped in several flavors, including passenger wagon, commercial van and bare chassis for custom builds.
The model was quite popular, too, with over 100,000 examples made until the production end in 1969. It also believed to have provided a start for the company’s current estate/wagon lineup.
In all likelihood, the upcoming EM90 will bear some purely stylistic semblance to the Volvo Duett, because it is essentially just a rebadged Zeekr 009 from China (see video).
The images posted by the Ministry of Industry and IT of China several days ago revealed that the EM90 is 5.2 meters long, has 3.2 meters between the axles, and uses a 272-PS (268-hp / 200-kW) electric motor. Patent applications in China are allowed to mention only one out of multiple possible powertrains, so we expect this one to be the base/cheapest spec.