The new XC90 is almost ready for launch. These are the first lot of official photos of the interior and well, it’s certainly a giant leap from the old car’s 12 year old design. I especially like the natural unpolished wood.
Gone is the ‘floating centre’ console design seen in current Volvos and in it’s place is an almost buttonless dash. All the conventional buttons and controls have been ditched in favour of a MASSIVE central iPad-style touchscreen. This being Volvo safety is of the utmost importance so voice control and steering wheel buttons are available to avoid unnecessary eye movement.
All the important driver information is displayed on another screen in the instrument cluster while ‘helpful’ app can be installed on the central touchscreen. There’s something about cloud storage too but I can’t even work an iCloud let alone a cloud in a car. Hopefully this system will be easy enough to use for me and soccer mums all over the world.
Volvo is hoping this new XC90 will prove to be a popular vehicle of choice for families around the world. The 7-seat three row arrangement of the old car remains. The rearmost 5 seats can be folded flat to carry all those IKEA furniture purchases, while with the seats in place even adults can sit comfortably in the back. It even has four-zone climate control. That’s one more zone than the number of time zones Australia has.
The XC90 will be built on Volvo’s new SPA platform which will be the basis of all new Volvos from the S60 up. There’ll be a range of petrol, diesel and hybrid powertrains available. The exterior styling will reflect the company’s latest concept cars such as the XC Coupe Concept, Coupe Concept and Estate Concept. Photos of the exterior will be revealed later in the year while a full launch has been penned for late 2014/early 2015.
