Volvo enters Swedish automotive design Renascence with its Concept XC Coupe

It’s hard to believe, but Volvo is becoming quite stylish.

The Swedish carmaker known for boxy station wagons unveiled the rakish Concept Coupe at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, and plans to follow it up with the Concept XC Coupe, a crossover set to unveil at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show.

Expect the Concept XC Coupe to adapt many of the Coupe Concept’s styling features to a more rugged crossover design. It should look longer an lower than anything seen on production Volvo XC models to date, with a stylish wraparound interpretation of the company’s signature taillights.

Underneath the new styling, the Concept XC Coupe will most likely be based on the same Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform as the Coupe Concept. SPA will underpin all of Volvo’s upcoming medium and large production vehicles – including the next XC90, which this concept will likely preview.

If this crossover concept is SPA-based, it will most likely be engineered for autonomous driving; Volvo hopes to have autonomous cars on the road by 2020.

We wouldn’t mind seeing a version of the Coupe Concept’s plug-in hybrid powertrain – consisting of a 2.0-liter supercharged and turbocharged four-cylinder engine and an electric motor – under the hood.

Volvo’s signature style has traditionally been the avoidance of style, but that just won’t cut it in today’s competitive luxury-car market. Buyers want their cars to be fashion items, even when they come from the company that built the 240 DL.

The Volvo Concept XC Coupe will be unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show on January 13. However, it plans to release full details a week ahead of that, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out the trailer below.