Volvo XC90: World premiere of the large SUV

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The hammer lights on the new SUV from Volvo

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The new Volvo XC90 has a massive radiator grille and narrow headlight slots.

Source: Volvo

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Typically Volvo are the pronounced shoulders over the rear fenders and the taillights that extend into the roof.

Source: Volvo

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Inside there are significantly fewer switches than usual, but no fewer functions: whatever was technically and legally possible, Volvo has in the large touchscreen in …integrated into the center console.

Source: Volvo

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It is hard to believe that only small engines are at work behind this impressive front: All XC90 variants are powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder, whether gasoline or die…sel.

Source: Volvo

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The top model with almost 400 hp will be the plug-in hybrid, whose batteries for the additional electric motor can be charged not only while driving, but also at the socket…en.

Source: Volvo

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Behind the unconventionally cut tailgate opens a storage space of more than 1800 liters – but Volvo will not provide exact figures until the world premiere at the Paris Salon Anfan…g October 2014.

Source: Volvo

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The length has increased by 14 centimeters to 4.95 meters, which is why the XC90 is again …

Source: Volvo

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… equipped with a third row of seats as standard. A very important sales argument for the main sales market, the USA.

Source: Volvo

When it comes to safety, Volvo is hardly fooling itself: the new XC90 even brakes automatically if you are not careful when turning left. But Volvo is playing a risky game with the engines.

D.But it was about time: After more than ten years, Volvo is finally sending the XC90 into well-deserved retirement and pulling the towel from its overdue successor. It will take until the public premiere at the Paris Salon a few more weeks, and the off-road vehicle at estimated prices starting at around 50,000 euros will not go on sale until shortly after the turn of the year.

The Swedes do not want to catch up with competitors such as the Mercedes M-Class or the BMW X5 with the XC90 alone. Above all, they want to relieve the conscience of SUV buyers and rid the off-road vehicles of their bad reputation with an imposing offensive for more efficiency and even more safety.

To do this, however, they are forcing their customers to rethink their approach, especially in the important US market: While the competition there mainly sells six and still a surprising number of eight-cylinders, Volvo will only have four-cylinders with a meager two-liter displacement in the future.

Nothing works under 225 hp

However, they are charged twice with turbo and compressor and therefore have a correspondingly high level of power. The petrol engine, with which Volvo is initially starting, has 320 and the diesel 225 hp.

Combined as standard with an eight-speed automatic transmission and equipped with all-wheel drive, the petrol engine achieves a sprint of 6.9 seconds and a top speed of 230 km / h. For the diesel, Volvo calls 7.8 seconds and 220 km / h.

To compensate for the additional cylinders, the engineers offer the performance-hungry customers an additional electric motor for the gasoline engine. Then the XC90 becomes a plug-in hybrid with around 400 hp and should combine sportiness with economy.

Because in addition to the greater steam, there is a lesser thirst, which should result in a standard consumption of around 2.5 liters. The conventional combustion engines are not quite as economical, however: Volvo has 7.7 liters for the gasoline engine and 5.8 liters for the diesel engine. This is not least due to the heavy weight of at least two tons.

Electronic upgrade

The fact that the XC90 is so heavy is also due to the safety understanding of the developers, who see their flagship as the safest off-road vehicle in the world. In doing so, they no longer rely solely on solid Swedish steel, but above all on bits and bytes and upgrade the XC90 electronically.

Not only can it drive largely autonomously through stop-and-go traffic, or it brakes for pedestrians and cyclists alone. As the first car in the world, it also knows the right of way and brakes automatically if the driver should ignore oncoming traffic when turning left.

Although a decent chunk at 4.95 meters, the new XC90 makes a very elegant impression. But as it should be for the King of the Vikings, he does not exercise particularly much restraint: The larger radiator grille stands proudly in the wind, the shoulders are broad as ever, in the accentuated wheel arches there is space for 22-inch wheels, and A striking LED graphic now lights up in the headlights, which Volvo immodestly calls "Thor’s hammer".

On the inside, however, the Swedes deliberately take a back seat: "Premium is no longer defined by the number of buttons," says Head of Development Peter Mertens, raving about a completely new operating concept. This relies on a huge touchscreen and only uses buttons where legislators and common sense leave the engineers with no other choice.

Third bench for adults too

The few controls that you can actually still touch are particularly elegantly designed: the knob on the gear selector lever, for example, comes from a Swedish glass manufacturer, and the small lever for selecting the gear steps is cut like a diamond.

In addition to a decidedly elegant ambience, the Swedes promise plenty of space in the “most luxurious Volvo of all time” – no wonder, given a wheelbase of just under three meters.

People who are 1.70 meters tall should also be able to sit comfortably on the standard third bench. And with up to 1.9 cubic meters of cargo space, the Volvo is ideally equipped for a second Swedish institution: shopping at Ikea.

The XC90 is the basis for the future

What makes the XC90 so important to Volvo is not just its large sales volume. After all, the Swedes have sold more than 600,000 of the current model since its premiere in 2002.

And it’s not just the unbroken rosy sales outlook for the large SUVs. But the XC90 is also the first model from the Swedes to use the new SPA platform and the new VEA engine family and thus something like the nucleus for everything that is to come in the future.

And that, as company boss Hakan Samuelsson and his chief technician Peter Mertens promise, will be a great deal at every opportunity, given an investment volume of eleven billion dollars.

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