On a foggy Fall morning in Denmark, moody music filled the cabin of the SUV as we blasted out of the tunnel and onto a five-mile bridge with towers that vanished in the mist above us. It was the kind of morning you didn’t want the sun to interrupt, and we were cocooned in good tunes and soft leather. My co-driver was an MTV Veejay in past life, so he handled the soundtrack on the tremendous system that our press vehicle was kitted out with. In a strange coincidence, me and this old friend I’ve known more than 20 years had both showed up at the same Copenhagen hotel for the same press trip without knowing it. Our first leg as co-drivers was crossing the sound that connects the North Sea with the Baltic.
“Where are we going!?” I asked. “We’re goin’ to motherfucking Sweden!” he said. We grinned like kids at the road ahead, suspended 700 feet over the busiest shipping lane in Scandinavia. After the five-mile crossing, we passed through an unmanned border turnpike from another era and cruised into the Volvo motherland.
Why We Were There
The purpose of the trip was to test drive Volvo’s refreshed top-tier SUVs for 2025. On the outside, they’ve added distinctive new Thor’s Hammer LED headlights, the taillights have been darkened in a way that gives the SUV a stealthier look, there’s a striking diagonally slatted front air intake (grille), and sharper lines on the hood and around the updated wheels. We got to drive both variants of the new XC90: the B5 mild hybrid and the T8 plug-in hybrid with 33 miles of all-electric range. Both vehicles come with AWD standard, the new air suspension on the T8 is particularly smooth, and the power on tap with both drivetrains felt very good underfoot. Inside is a new Bowers & Wilkins sound system, a larger touchscreen, and a suite of tactile luxury touches. These and other new additions inside and out bring the XC90 in-line with Volvo’s other major recent release––their all-electric EX90.
The all-electric SUV is stellar, but these two new XC90 variants are for those who want a technological middle ground where they can dabble in electric power without the full commitment. With the mild hybrid B5, you never have to plug it in to enjoy better gas mileage and acceleration. With the 33-miles of range on the T8 plug-in, you could run daily errands or even a daily commute and never need to use any gas except on road trips. The XC90 is an SUV that I’ve loved since it came out in 2002. The 2015 second-generation was a stunning reinvention, and with this new refresh it’s hard to imagine much room for improvement, if any.
Into The Swedish Heartland
Southern Sweden is the agricultural heartland of the country, a wide-open landscape of farmland surrounded by water, with minimalist Scandi farmhouses and barns, quaint fishing villages, and the occasional church steeple. It was a mental detox just to be there, and getting to traverse that landscape in the XC90 was like a waking dream.
My co-driver kept the sound system hot with his curated playlists. The Bowers & Wilkins system is a pricy but worthwhile upgrade option for the XC90. I listen to a lot of luxury sound systems while reviewing cars, but this one really stands out. Bowers & Wilkins is a true audiophile’s brand, founded almost sixty years ago by two WWII Royal Corps of Signals vets. I was so impressed by the sound system while reviewing the Volvo XC60 that I brought along a pair of the company’s latest Pi8 earbuds for the flight over, and the noise cancellation made for a very peaceful journey.
A Man Named Violin
At a facility called the “Volvo Landscape” on the water overlooking the bridge we had crossed to get there from Denmark, we had dinner with the Volvo brass. The dining tables overlooked an exhibition hall where a bare hybrid powertrain was posed like a dinosaur skeleton, and a Bowers & Wilkins sound system hung suspended on cables. There was a round robin of shifting seats, and I got to meet many of the people behind the brand. A brand may span many decades, and Volvo is coming up on its centennial. It’s not the brand but the people behind it who make it what it is. It’s an easy thing to forget when I’m thousands of miles away driving a review loaner.
The Volvo team had strangely cool names: Sebastian Percival, the Senior Communications Manager, and Örjan Sterner, the Exterior Designer, and Alessio Violin, the Italian Vehicle Dynamic Engineer who introduced himself as being “in suspension,” while I was in a suspension of disbelief over his name.
Whatever sense of Volvo’s brand identity I had before the trip was rooted in my own memories. My parents’ red Volvo wagon, my father’s tan sedan, and the S70 I got before my senior year of college to carry me into the real world. But then you come to Scandinavia, and you realize you’ve only known a cultural sliver of the brand. They are everywhere on the roads in Sweden, melding into the culture to the point that they mirror it. Swedes dress well, they’re thoughtful, empathetic, direct, and elegant without being flashy. And so are their cars.
Here Comes The Sun
Our final driving day was bright and clear, and we took a Denim Blue B5 to an oceanfront golf course called Barsebäck, a name that elicited a few snickers from these two childish co-drivers. Later, on the sidewalk in Malmō outside our hotel after loading up our luggage, we said goodbye to our new Volvo friends before heading back to Denmark. I got a chance to talk to the designer, Örjan Sterner, about my first car being a Volvo.
“That was right after the V40 came out,” he said, referring to a car he designed in 1997. It was hard for me to comprehend that with all the changes in my life since I picked up the keys to that car at 22, he’s been there the whole time. The loyalty and continuity of that struck a chord with me.
Yes, this is the best XC90 that Volvo has ever made. And if you asked me before the trip why you should buy one, I’d probably say it’s because of the handling, the smooth power, or the cushy interiors. But ask me that now, and I’d say get one because of the people who make them.
