With over 118 awards since its global launch, Volvo’s new XC90 SUV has earned nods and accolades the world over. Coming from different sectors all over the globe, journalists, experts, and automotive enthusiasts all agree that Volvo has indeed come up with the best Volvo to date especially with its award-winning interface, design and engine. Garnering votes as Car of the Year, Best Luxury SUV, and Overall Best in Class, among others, motoring institutions, publications and associations all gave top marks to Volvo’s reincarnation of its world-first 7-seater SUV.

Strong and exceptional, the new Volvo XC90 is a delight to the senses with an overall package that spells out the ultimate in Swedish luxury. Wrapped with features that benefit the user, the XC90 is a confident looker, carrying Volvo’s new design language and strutting its curves with utmost confidence. It takes the term “user-friendly” to a new level with its easy-to-use infotainment interface – minimizing control buttons from 42 to just 8, for example. Its unparalleled safety and reduced environmental impact spell a world of difference, delivering first-class comfort, exhilarating drive, and a clear conscience.

A premium seven-seat SUV, the XC90 is designed to deliver a luxurious user experience, whilst retaining the ride height, space and practicality that typifies this segment.

The XC90 is the first car to be built on the new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), Volvo’s advanced modular product platform that will underpin all new Volvo cars in the 90 and 60 Series.

Like its siblings S90 and V90, the XC90 carries the proud and confident face of Volvo’s new design language, along with classic Volvo styling cues. Key features include the iconic “Thor’s Hammer” LED headlight design, the new grille and Volvo Iron Mark, and the expressive use of the Volvo word mark on the rear, framed by the signature sweeping lines of the rear lights.

The interior of the XC90 provides a calm and balanced environment with a blend of high-end materials such as wood, crystal and metal in a sophisticated design.

A brand new seat design delivers on Volvo’s heritage of making among the most comfortable and ingeniously safe seats in the car industry, using the latest technology.

All new Volvos are now connected, thanks to Volvo’s connectivity offering called Sensus. It delivers an intuitive touch screen interface that combines car functions, navigation, connected services and in-car entertainment applications such as Spotify, Pandora, Baidu or TuneIn. The portrait-oriented touch screen enables easy and fast access to a host of functions and features.

The XC90 is powered by Volvo’s Drive-E powertrains, including petrol, diesel and Volvo’s T8 Twin Engine, a petrol plug-in hybrid mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission.

Volvo’s T8 Twin Engine delivers all the benefits of a high performance, low emission petrol engine with an electric motor that delivers power on demand with CO2 emissions at just 49 g/km, more than 43 km of pure electric range and a combined power output of around 410 hp. This makes the XC90 T8 Twin Engine one of the most efficient and powerful 7-seater premium SUVs on the market today.

Volvo’s leadership in the field of automotive safety is confirmed in the XC90. Volvo’s City Safety Technology, standard on all Volvo models, combines automatic breaking functionality and collision avoidance systems to cover a range of potential accident scenarios and help keep you safe.

From 2016, City Safety’s functionality is further extended in the XC90 with Large Animal Detection, designed to help avoid or mitigate collisions with large animals such as moose. An auto-steer functionality that helps to keep you on the road, called Run Off Road Mitigation, has also been added.

Volvo’s overall safety offering, called IntelliSafe, encompasses both active and passive safety systems and forms the groundwork for Volvo’s leadership in the field of autonomous drive. The XC90 already offers semi-autonomous drive with Pilot Assist, which, from 2016, works up to 130 km/h on clearly marked roads. Pilot Assist is another step towards Volvo’s Vision 2020, which states that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020.

Read our review of the 2016 Volvo XC90 D5 Momentum here.