Swedish excellence: Volvo’s XC90 Recharge impresses in most departments.
Former Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović was a tough centre-forward who always made his presence known in the 18-yard box. He attached elegance and class to his game.
Who could forget the almost halfway-line bicycle kick he scored against England that time? It was daring, but when the ball ended up in the English goal, he stood tall with his classic Zlatan aura and it was then that the world acknowledged Swedish brilliance.
Much like the big striker, the Volvo XC90 Recharge has a robust feel about it. It’s an almost 5m-long car and weighs more than 2 tonnes. Although a big figure, like Ibrahimović, the XC90 is quick and agile as well.
The XC90 Recharge is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and has an 18.8 kilowatt-hour battery. All of this gives the car 345 kilowatts of power and 709Nm of torque.
Volvo claims it does 0 to 100km/h in 5.3 seconds.
With all that power, the car handled very well on the slightly bendy highways on the East Rand. It felt really nimble when driving in either electric or petrol mode.
Volvo can take credit for this due to this vehicle being an all-wheel-drive, but also having one-pedal drive capabilities. This allows the XC90 Recharge to perform with agility, while delivering relaxed control and a smooth, powerful drive.
Another plus of the XC90 Recharge is that, even when driving in the pure electric mode, the speed picks up very quickly, but in a calm linear fashion, which is something other electric vehicles struggle with.
The Volvo EX30 almost kicks you back to Mars when you put the pedal to the metal. I guess that vehicle is meant for the thrill-seeker, while the XC90 is more of a family car.
The engine also runs extremely smoothly. When you do switch to petrol, you will obviously feel a difference, but the engine is nice and silent from the inside of the vehicle.
That is probably where Ibrahimović and the XC90 Recharge differ. Ibrahimović could never stay silent.
The battery helps with the vehicle’s fuel consumption. When driving from Springs to Pretoria, I was averaging just under 10 litres/100km and, if I hadn’t had the battery for the time off the highway, I imagine I would have been up to at least 12 or 13 litres/100km by the time I reached my destination.
The XC90 Recharge is a plug-in hybrid, which means you can also charge it while driving. It has four driving modes: hybrid, pure, power and constant all-wheel-drive.
The interior of the car has an even more premium feel to it than the exterior. When you enter, you are greeted by leather seats, which can be heated and cooled — which helped a lot in the recent heatwave — a lovely dashboard and door panels, made out of recycled materials, and a centre console with adequate storage space.
However, my favourite piece of work on the inside had to be the gear shifter. It’s handcrafted in genuine Swedish crystal and is made exclusively for Volvo by Orrefors.
On top of that, there’s the infotainment screen, which is equipped with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto; a fully digital cluster; a heads-up display and a ton of safety features like lane-keeping aid, front and rear parking assistant, collision warning and a 360-degree camera.
My main gripe with the infotainment system was how far back into the dashboard Volvo stashed it, especially because a lot of the settings you look for while driving are only accessible through that screen.
At least Volvo has incorporated a few buttons below the infotainment system in this model which made things slightly easier while driving.
While the engine might feel smooth and silent, the speakers on the vehicle are much like Ibrahimović. There are 19 precisely tuned hi-fi speakers and an innovative fresh-air subwoofer tailored to the Volvo’s cabin architecture.
Powered by Bowers & Wilkins, these deliver impressive surround sound, no matter where you are sitting. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much of a chance to blast my playlists because I have a toddler who insisted on listening to music from Mufasa: The Lion King.
That said, Aaron Pierre and Mads Mikkelsen (who voice Mufasa and Kiros) really came to life in the XC90 Recharge.
The back seats are extremely spacious and you can control the climate in the rear of the car independently.
While you might not be able to fit an entire football squad into the vehicle, there is a third row of seats that comes up if you ever have more than five passengers. The last row does not provide the extreme comfort that the rest of the XC90 offers but is sufficient for average-sized adults.
The boot loses three-quarters of its space if you keep the last row of seats up but, when they are folded, it is huge, giving you 1 816 litres of space.
The Volvo XC90 Recharge comes in two variants: the Plus and the Ultra. The Plus will set you back R1 713 000 and the Ultra will cost R1 808 000.
Volvo announced earlier this week that they will be bringing the EX90, which is fully electric and also a seven seater, to South Africa in 2025.
The brand has committed to producing only electric vehicles by 2030 and, if they continue to put out excellence like the XC90 and EX30, the silence of their electric vehicles will be golden.
