The XC90 is the first car in the world with technology that features automatic braking if the Volvo driver starts to turn in front of an oncoming car that is going quicker than expected.
Volvo Cars has unveiled its new XC90, which was under development for three years at the Chinese-owned (Zhejiang Geely) automaker. The 7-seat crossover SUV, says Volvo, is the result of s $11 billion product development program that is the company’s latest attempt to use a scalable architecture, a fancy way of saying a common platform that can be used for larger and smaller vehicles.
In the latest marketing gimmick, as well as the latest threat to authorized new car dealers, a limited “First Edition” of XC90 sees 1,927 individually numbered cars that celebrate the year Volvo was founded that will only be available at www.volvocars.com from September 3 at 16.00 CET.
The new XC90 will be the first Volvo to carry the company’s bold new grille (sorry, but this marketing babble is hard to take), which has the arrow aligned with the diagonal slash across the grille. It is claimed that the snout introduces an “entirely new, distinctive and confident face for Volvo’s forthcoming generation of cars.”
The most expensive XC90 is a Twin Engine plug-in hybrid, which combines a 2-liter, four-cylinder supercharged and turbocharged gasoline engine with an electric motor, rated at about 400 horsepower with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of around 60 g/km (NEDC driving cycle). This will be the world’s first 7-seat plug-in hybrid.
Other XC90 models to start are powered by gasoline or diesel engines from Volvo’s new four-cylinder powertrain family. The supercharged and turbocharged T6 has an output of 320 horsepower, with a maximum torque of 400 Nm. The D5 twin turbo diesel engine has 225 horsepower and 470 Nm. The engines are mated with an 8-speed automatic transmission.
No word on when the SinoSwedenese vehicles will appear in the U.S. where Volvo sales at 34,00o are off more than 11% year-to-date through August. Full details on the pricing will be announced at a later date, but a well-equipped XC90 T6 AWD will have a starting price of $48,900 in the U.S.. The XC90 T6 AWD will come standard with 19-inch wheels, a power sunroof, car connectivity and is expected to deliver best-in-class power and fuel efficiency.
