Gadgetory

I'm Brian coolie here in Los Angeles where Volvo is giving us a first taste of their new xc90 SUV the model name has been around before but this is a completely different car and this is a major clean sheet refresh it's the first major launch they've had since acquisition by Chinese investors let's take a look let's weighing on under the hood because this is the most interesting part here is a very small engine for a big vehicle a 2 litre inline-four but with a turbocharger and a supercharger working at different parts of the RPM range and because we have a t8 the eights have plug-in hybrid technologies you can see part of that here a big battery down the spine an electric motor that drives the rear wheels only for extra oomph and also for a very smart all-wheel drive system on demand the numbers work out great over 400 horsepower close to 500 pound feet of torque and the mpge the efficiency should be around 59 or 60 Volvo says once the EPA rates this vehicle inside the first thing you notice is an all LCD instrument panel from speedo to tack - typically nav in the middle over on the right in the center console there's your tablet like main unit which lets you swipe back and forth to go either to vehicle settings over to infotainment or settle on the middle and a home screen very much mobile technology style user interface and of course being a Volvo they've got advanced driver assist for safety including the ability to pick up bicycles and pedestrians both in day and night conditions now they've got a rear collision tech so if you're gonna get rear-ended the vehicle locks up its brakes and cinches you beforehand and they've redesigned the inside of the cabin so if the vehicle runs off the side of the road into a rut it's going to collapse elegantly to protect compression of your spine very volvo stuff couple that with what they call a pilot assist which lets it handle stop and go traffic in terms of braking acceleration and maintaining lane with almost no input from you ok I've almost got the xc90 the t6 with a conventional powertrain that's coming to showrooms in July 2015 here in the US and then this t8 that the plug-in hybrid tech that's more like an October arrival these are about forty eight to seventy some odd thousand dollar vehicles depending how you equip them which powertrain you select