Automotive
Known for having an edge in automotive safety, Volvo continues to pave the path that has landed them deep into luxury territory. For 2025, Volvo will refresh their XC90 3-row crossover and rework the trim level names to avoid confusion as they add additional electrified offerings to the lineup. As a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV – Plug-in-hybrid Electric Vehicle), the XC90 in its top-level T8 AWD Ultra trim offers a versatile and rather powerful powertrain, giving owners the ability to either drive fully electric or as a hybrid with 455 horsepower and 523 lb-ft of torque.
As PHEVs and even electric vehicles continue to gain popularity among certain crowds, Volvo has placed itself at the forefront of such offerings, and the XC90 has kept with that tradition in the past years. Having driven the XC90 in its PHEV previously, I know there’s a lot to welcome back in my driveway for a vehicle that gives you the option to drive on full electricity for 32 miles. Otherwise, you have a 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine (312 hp) that works with the electric motor and an 8-speed automatic transmission to do the grunt work powering all four wheels. The total power output feels substantial, and the PHEV system does well in sorting out power management. Zero to 60 mph comes in at 5.2 seconds.
When you’re not making a dash to 60 mph, the XC90 returns about 27 mpg utilizing the hybrid drive setting with a depleted battery. Charge up the 18.8-kWh battery pack, taking about 5 hours to fully charge using a Level 2 home charger; you will nearly match the EPA estimate of 58 MPGe overall figure in the real world.
The XC90 T8 AWD Ultra, with its adaptive dampers and air suspension, has a rather plush ride quality that’s excellent in its handling of road imperfections and giving you a slight sense of stability. The drive modes, which are hidden in the infotainment system menu sets, allow you to bring up a battery save mode as well as a power mode, which is essentially a sport mode that lowers the air suspension, stiffens the dampers slightly, and increases the throttle response. Altogether, the XC90 T8 AWD Ultra is a smooth operator fitting for its luxury segment.
The interior is somewhat lavish, delivering comfort through the perforated leather seats up front with several power adjustments, heating, ventilation, and back-area massaging functions. Unfortunately, the seat headrests remain fixed in place not allowing any adjustment other than the rear seats allowing you to fold down the headrests out of the way. The dashboard continues to fit the mold of a minimalistic approach where most of the vehicle controls interact through the newly updated and larger 11.2-inch portrait-oriented touchscreen. The system is slightly updated to be more user-friendly, but many will continue to go through a learning curve as most vehicle futures and interactions are made through the screen. The only physical controls remaining are the large volume knob, play/pause button, front/rear defrosters, hazard button, and a power glovebox opener.
I do enjoy that Volvo has updated the display for the 360-degree camera system to view both the rearward camera view and a 360-degree view at the same time instead of having just one at a time in previous years. One confusing part, which may be remedied with an over-the-air software update, is that I could never get Apple CarPlay to work through a USB connection, and there is no option for wireless CarPlay still – c’mon Volvo!
On the front of safety, Volvo doesn’t leave any stone unturned, where all the expected active safety features are included. Moreover, Volvo goes the extra distance to still allow certain functions to run in the background even when disabling them on the surface.
While the Volvo XC90 is a bit aged for its current second generation, the refreshing is welcomed, and the price point continues to make such a vehicle an attractive buy – even at the loaded as-tested price of $88,695.
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