Believe it or not, but Volvo’s outgoing mid-sized XC60 is still Europe’s top selling SUV. Now the new one is here, and we drove it during the car’s world launch in Spain!
This is how it all started, of course; not as a SUV, but with the very same objectives: to withstand the rigours of Sweden’s rough roads and freezing temperatures.
How daunting a task then, when the very first Volvo rolled off Gothenburg’s assembly line in 1927, not only to fulfil on this vision by founders Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larson, but also to deliver on their primary guiding principle born from safety concerns.
Almost a century later and neither the Swedish climate nor Volvo’s philosophy has changed one iota.
But three other things did: the status of the roads, the quality of Gothenburg’s vehicles and the ‘-son’ on top of the Volvo pile: Håkan Samuelsson now does what Gabrielsson and Larson did a century ago, building cars to conquer the harsh realities of life on the road, still with people’s safety as paramount.
“By 2020,” Samuelsson says, “we want no-one killed or seriously injured in a Volvo.”
SAFETY FIRST
Enter Gothenburg’s longer, wider and lower second generation XC60.
As the “Son of XC90”, the new mid-sized family SUV excels in safety features, with a trio of systems as world firsts: (1) City Safety with Steering Support to help a driver brake and steer around obstacles; (2) Oncoming Lane Mitigation to warn if the car is wandering towards oncoming traffic and, in the absence of any driver’s response, steer it back to its own lane; and (3) BLISS blind-spot alert, now with Steer Assist, that will not only flash a warning light at the driver, but also steer the car away from a lane-changing accident.
Over and above, the XC60 will be equipped with a full-house of more familiar safety features like road run-off mitigation, large-animal avoidance, collision avoidance and ABS brakes plus the latter’s host of electronic spin-offs (EBD, BAS, hill descent control, hill start assist, and more).
Yet, safety is defined by a whole lot more than active systems.
It’s also a function of passive systems and structural integrity, and again the XC60 answers the call of the founding fathers, the car’s safety cell being from ultra-high strength steel, the longitudinal load carrying beams from very high strength steel, the rear crash structure from high strength steel, and so forth.
Not that anybody would ever want to put any of this to the test; until needed, safety is a hidden asset, not a visual, tactile, or experiential wow.
SON OF XC90
But don’t fear, the XC60 makes a statement from all angles, especially in the metal. As the “Son of XC90”, it offers the same shape and arrestingly bold design in a smaller size, Thor’s Hammer headlights included. The smaller vehicle also feels the same, rides the same, drives the same and performs the same, albeit with a small dose of sportiness mixed into the equation.
With exactly the same 2.0-litre mills to boot, plus Volvo’s wonderfully smooth eight-speed auto box (and even the same seats, infotainment screen, communication systems, climate control, panoramic sun roof plus semi-autonomous Pilot Assist and the like) performance is just a tad livelier, courtesy of the XC60’s smaller and lighter body on a shorter version of Gothenburg’s Scalable Product Architecture platform.
RIDE AND SUSPENSION
In the name of sportiness, the ride has been beefed up, if ever so slightly, with firmer settings on conventionally sprung as well as air suspended models, the latter riding not only on air springs but also active Tenneco dampers on all four corners.
In the normal iteration, the XC60’s rear utilizes an Allevard supplied composite glass fibre leaf spring (0.75 kg lighter than steel springs, allowing a 1 mm thinner anti-roll bar) and although we didn’t drive any leaf spring models during the international launch, we would unhesitatingly suggest the slightly more expensive air suspension.
It was patently obvious in Spain that the cushioning effect of air springs in combination with active dampers provide for a softer ride than the outgoing model’s steel spring/passive damper combo – and extrapolating from the XC90 and S90 experiences, also then the new model’s rear leaf/front steel springs in combo with passive BWI dampers – even though routes never seriously challenged the car’s ride or, for that matter, dynamics.
ENGINES AND PERFORMANCE
Test units, furthermore, were restricted to the top D5 diesel with PowerPulse (173 kW, 480 Nm) and T6 petrol (235 kW, 400 Nm) which debut in South Africa in next year’s second quarter.
The D4 (140 kW, 400 Nm) and T5 (187 kW, 400 Nm) will be introduced at a later stage, but it remains to be seen whether Volvo SA will add the T8 hybrid flagship (300 kW) to complete a full house of XC60 models.
As it stands, Volvo’s Drive E engine range has now seen its first update in the shape of a wider NVH loop (i.e. more refinement) on the 2.0-litre oil burner, which already boasted industry leading i-ART technology courtesy of Denso’s 9 shot per cycle solenoid injectors, with injection pressures reaching 2 500 bar.
LAST WORD
Overall, then, the Son of XC90 seems like another outstanding product in Gothenburg’s renaissance under Geely ownership. Lots of Chinese research and development has certainly broadened the scope of a previously cash-strapped company, but credit Volvo as well for a bold decision to restrict their product underbelly to 2.0-litre Drive E four- and three-cylinder engines plus the SPA platform.
On top of this, Thomas Ingenlath has not only added powerfully elegant exteriors, but also soberingly calm interiors imbued with a strong sense of Zen, the XC60 advancing the art with a protruding “bowl lip” from deliciously robust and tactile Swedish drift wood to carry the dash from side to side, while itself being trimmed by a thin stainless steel beading boasting a cut-out of the Swedish flag.
The latter also flies proud and small in yellow and blue, as stitched to the side piping of the front passenger seat.
In all matters, big and small, Volvo has thus created another winner; with 161 000 units sold last year, the outgoing XC60 – now in its ninth year of production – is still Europe’s best selling premium SUV.
Withstanding the rigours of Sweden’s rough roads and freezing temperatures might have been the raison d’être for Gabrielsson and Larson’s first ever Volvo.
But Håkan Samuelsson’s vision for the new XC60 will certainly be to build on its predecessor’s success.
Judging by international launch drives, the Son of XC90 is perfectly placed to do just that. Pricing is still to be announced; expect R650,000 and higher.
Report by EGMONT SIPPEL | Images © VOLVO CAR SOUTH AFRICA
