Volvo's XC90 refresh shows continued combustion commitment

Volvo has given one of its most important models of the last decade a major refresh as it backs away from its ambition to be an electric-only automaker by 2030 because of the continued worldwide popularity of models that get most of their power from a combustion engine.

The revised XC90 has a completely new front end; a bigger, sharper, more responsive infotainment screen; and convenience features aimed at making sure phones and drinks have designated spaces in the car.

What hasn’t changed is that the updated second-generation XC90 remains on the scalable product architecture (SPA), and it will continue to be sold as a mild hybrid and a plug-in hybrid.

The diesel variant is gone as Volvo ended production of vehicles with the powertrain on March 26. The final diesel-powered Volvo was an XC90.

Orders for the revised XC90 opened Sept. 4, with production of the model at Volvo’s plant in Torslanda, Sweden, set to start by the end of the year.

Nearly 1 million sold

Volvo has no desire to discontinue the XC90, saying that even after more than a decade on the market — and nearly one million built — it expects the SUV to remain a sales and profit generator for several more years, without saying when it would be discontinued.

Globally, the current XC90 had its second-best year in 2023 with more than 107,500 sold. Its all-time high was in 2021 when more than 108,000 were sold globally (see table, below).

What’s new?

Volvo says it has reworked the exterior of the XC90 to give it a more contemporary and confident look that better aligns visually with its newest full-electric models, the EX90 and EX30.

The XC90’s revamped front end has a new iteration of the "Thor's hammer" headlight design that Volvo launched with the debut of the SUV in August 2014. The new XC90’s headlights are slimmer and offer a matrix-design LED technology with more points of light, resulting in a long light pattern.
 
Active high-beam technology allows drivers to keep the high beams on without disorienting oncoming traffic.

The updated XC90 also has a new front air intake, with a distinctive interpretation of the iconic Volvo iron mark logo.

In addition, Volvo gave the XC90 a new hood and fenders to distinguish it from its predecessor.

The XC90’s front cabin also has been redesigned, giving the SUV a more horizontal dashboard profile with more textured materials.

A feature that customers will immediately notice in the revised XC90 is a new central tunnel layout, with a “2+1” cupholder arrangement. The “+ 1” is a smaller slot for skinny drink cans such as a Red Bull. The storage location also has a thin slot that is specifically for a mobile phone. Within inches of that storage slot is a wireless phone charger.

Volvo also upgraded the interior. The most noticeable change is that the central touch screen grows to 11.2 inches wide from nine inches.

Not only is the central display larger, but the touchscreen also has a higher resolution thanks to a 21 percent increase in pixel density, and it is more responsive than in the current XC90, which often needs more than a few second to make functions available.

The revised touchscreen also includes smaller tiles on the bottom of the screen to provide easier to access key functions. This feature was brought over from the EX90 and EX30.

The refreshed XC90’s 360-degree camera to help with parking now features a split screen to provide multiple views around the car.

Volvo improved the sound insulation, with laminated windows and more acoustic foam in the A and B pillars.

Rich history

When the current Volvo XC90 debuted in 2014 the automaker was in a precarious position.

When it arrived in 2002, the first-generation XC90 established Volvo as a credible SUV rival to the BMW X5 and Mercedes M-Class (now the GLE). However, at roughly 12 years on the market and competing against rivals such as the X5, which was on its third generation by 2013, Volvo know something had to change.

One reason for the longer than usual life cycle, which is typically seven years, was that Volvo was facing uncertainty as Ford no longer wanted to own the Swedish company that it bought in 1999.

Ford sold Volvo to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2010, so the second-generation XC90 would be the first all-new model under Chinese ownership.

In 2016, Kent Falck, who was director of the XC90 and its sibling, the S90 and V90, told Automotive News Europe that the move to Geely ownership was a make-or-break moment for the company.

“You have a choice. You can lay down and die or start with a blank piece of paper,” he said.

The XC90 has been a pillar of the company’s revival. Since it first started to play a factor in Volvo’s overall sales in 2015 the automaker has broken its global sales record six times in nine years, with new highs reached in 2015-19 and in 2023.

Volvo has already indicated that 2024 will be another record sales year.

The XC90 was the first car underpinned by the scalable product architecture (SPA) and the first with a center-position large vertical touchscreen to control several functions that used to be adjusted using buttons or switches. It would also be the first major launch under CEO Hakan Samuelsson, who took the top job in October 2012 and left the company in March 2022.

The second-generation XC90 debuted in August 2014 and by February 2015 Volvo already had 16,000 orders. That was a good omen as the large SUV has accumulated nearly 1 million sales since then, making it the top-selling models all time for the 97-year-old brand.

Much like in 2014, Volvo is at a crucial juncture. It had committed to being an electric-only brand by 2030 and said it wanted to get half of its global sales from battery-powered cars as early as next year. Volvo on Sept. 4 backed away from that goal, saying that the transition to electrification was moving at different speeds around the world.

With that in mind, Volvo said, PHEVs such as the XC90 and its siblings with the powertrain "remain critical to our sales and profit growth plans over the coming years."