this is the new xc90 and it's a very big
story for them now I can recall not too
long ago well yeah it was long ago when
Volvo was the number one selling
European luxury car in the US you didn't
talk about mercedes and BMW and Audi
that much in those days where signs have
changed in the first third of this year
luxury car sales in the US have gone up
about five percent and Volvo sales about
zero percent that's what they aim to fix
with these guys these xc90 s come in two
basic flavors a t6 and a t8 the six of
the eight share the same combustion
powertrain but then the eight adds
plug-in hybrid electric motivation on
top of that they're both three row seven
seat vehicles and as you can see they've
got a new but identifiable Volvo look
this is their first big project since
the acquisition by Chinese money five
years ago so a lot of eyes are watching
both t6 and t8 xc90 s have the same
unusual engine a small 2-liter
four-cylinder but it gets bulked way up
by not a turbo or a supercharger but
both the supercharger kicks in first the
turbo takes over at higher rpm at which
point the supercharger disengages to
reduce drag then the t8 steps it up with
more tech because we've added the motor
in the back the battery in the middle
and all of our transfer and control
circuitry 400 horsepower now 472
pound-feet of torque 0 to 60 comes down
from around 6 seconds to 5.3 even though
the weight goes up about 400 pounds
efficiency is expected to be around 59
mpg II which is typically how you start
to look at these cars that can spend a
fair amount of time running electric we
don't have it fully certified EPA yet
in front of you is an LCD instrument
panel that's becoming almost required in
luxury vehicles over here to the right
someone that your eyes been tending
toward right there is a tablet style
interface and it's more than just tablet
in its size and orientation it's also
tablet it's muscle memory you got a home
button at the bottom you drag down here
to get your settings you go left and
right
to go to specialty screens on the left
or all your vehicle and car functions go
back one more to home go another one to
right and there's all your infotainment
functions it's a whole lot of settings
for your different driver assist control
including parking including collision
avoidance lane keeping aids reading road
signs to get that up on the head-up
display and things of that nature let's
talk about the driver assist now since
that's what's controlled they're the
ones getting a lot of attention handles
your injuries or hopefully prevents them
if you go off the road but it doesn't
prevent you from doing that that's
already existing in Lane keep and lane
departure management this is one that
handles spinal injuries if you go into
those ruts on the side of the road at
high speed so it's going to give you
more of a crush zone underneath the seat
it also cinches up the belt they say
it's all about spinal compression
protection there's automatic braking
during left turns at intersections so if
you're about to turn into someone and
get yourself t-boned the car won't let
you it's gonna cram on the brakes this
is all camera and radar based the same
camera and radar are looking out front
for pedestrians and cyclists both day
and night and with automatic braking
there's a rear-end protection system
here you know it's the worst feeling in
the world is you're sitting there a
sitting duck and you see someone's about
to plow in the up and if that's the case
it's gonna lock its own brakes to
prevent its movement as a projectile and
it's also gonna cinch up your belts to
prevent your movement as a projectile
pilot assist is similar to what a lot of
carmakers are bringing out which is the
first step of autonomy it'll handle
adaptive cruise so slow speeds stop and
go and keep you in your lane
and your drive controls in the xc90
began in a very Swedish manner with an
RO force crystal drive control handle
which gets you into your PRM D&B high
regeneration mode because we're in the
electrified t8 here is your start/stop
you rotate this thing and behind there
is this nice little neural drum which
you turn and click to get to your
different drive modes now all-wheel
drive is where you force it to go into
AWD using that rear electric apparatus
here's a mode that says don't use the
battery I want it for later hybrid is
kind of as you can imagine a mix of both
for general use power is your sporty
self-explanatory mode here's a rough
road mode again adaptive suspension
all-wheel drive this vehicle can stretch
itself various ways and you can set up
and cook your own mix under individual
so not only is that third row pretty
credible I'm gonna have seen much
smaller here's a sign of our times the
middle seat in the second row can be
moved forward and back forward so the
little one back here doesn't get
separation anxiety
I wonder which countries market research
told them they needed this I'm in the t8
right now some numbers on its
electrification it's got about 17 miles
of pure evey range what's interesting is
it can run electrically in the right
conditions up to about 80 miles an hour
so it can be a full freeway electric car
and your charge time if you've got a 240
volt high amp circuit which you're gonna
want for a plug-in car is about two and
a half hours and of course it regens as
you go
none of these drive modes I find that
the you know pure eco drives what you'd
expect it's quite muted as you can
imagine this power mode the sporty mode
is the one that gives you your best
engagement really feels the best but it
won't be the most efficient
I'm hearing a lot of sort of electric
power train sounds which sometimes can
be oddly intrusive whining sounds but I
need to wait till we get a final US spec
traduction xc90 in our hands to really
judge this power train one thing I can
tell you now you will hardly believe
that there's a small 4-cylinder at the
heart of this rig really comfortable
ride and then a great job dialing in the
quality of the ride now it doesn't
matter what of the modes I'm in it's
never harsh and it doesn't feel like
it's weight to be honest this doesn't
feel like the poundage that it reads on
paper which is always a nice trick for a
car now what I'm liking at this t6 and
I'm getting a chance to sample is the
lane-keeping technology that Volvo uses
it's very nuanced it's very confident
feeling that's going to be important as
we roll out semi self-driving cars soon
to consumers if the vehicle feels like
it is really in charge and knows what
it's doing it's gonna go a long way
toward getting people to leave the
skeptical range and say you know what
this works ok let's wrap up now five
points that make the xc90 very notable
first of all you see the whole new look
it's a fresh face for Volvo and it's
gonna have to make a market impression
get inside you've got the new look and
feel of the census Kinect technology
under the hood they've made a bold move
two four-cylinder engines not even big
ones that have turbos and supercharging
they've got the plug-in technology added
to the t8 variant and finally they've
got some state-of-the-art driver assist
technology that in some cases nobody
else has or at least has as aggressively
this will be important cars to watch
when the t6 arrives July 15 the t8 in
October
or cars driven CNET style standing by
now at CNET on cars.com click on the
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