Volvo hasn’t completely redesigned its flagship XC90 3-row SUV for the 2025 model year. But it’s made improvements significant enough that when one passes you on the road, you might assume it’s all new.
Two 2025 Models on the Lot
A heavy refresh brings a new look inside and out and a more refined highway ride. Shoppers should note that there are already XC90s on sales lots labeled 2025, but they don’t have these updates. Volvo will begin building this version in “late 2024,” it says. So, think of these updates as the 2025½ XC90.
Prices start at $59,745, including the $1,295 delivery fee. “Additional pricing will be shared at a later time,” Volvo says.
New Suspension
Powertrain options remain unchanged. Volvo will still offer two gas-powered models and one plug-in hybrid (PHEV) after the update. You can choose between two turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engines, one making 247 horsepower and one making 295 hp. The PHEV option gets 455 hp from a 4-cylinder engine mated to an electric motor and can travel up to 32 miles on electric power alone.
The highway ride, however, may be much improved. A new standard suspension uses adaptive mechanical dampers that stiffen and flex to match current road conditions “for a more confident and relaxed driving experience.”
An optional air suspension will still be available.
To emphasize the new smooth ride, Volvo added sound-deadening material throughout the car. Wind and road noise should be less noticeable, though they weren’t a problem our reviewers remarked on last year.
That’s it for mechanical upgrades. But the mechanical upgrades aren’t the headline here.
More Contemporary Look
Designers frequently give a car a visual update at the midpoint of its production run, but what Volvo has done looks closer to a wheels-up redesign. Volvo is slowly changing itself into an all-electric automaker (though not as fast as originally planned), making even its gas-powered vehicles look more like the electric cars of the future.
Here, that means a grille so sculpted it looks like it must be one of the artificial grilles that characterize electric cars. It’s not. The new air sucker looks elegant, with diagonal strakes tucked into each other as if folded. Volvo’s signature Thor’s Hammer headlights now flow into the grille, a thin outline of LEDs.
The hood and sides remain unchanged – standard fare for a visual refresh – but the rear gets a new light signature with similarly thin red LEDs bracketing the glass.
New Infotainment System
Inside, a resculpted dashboard includes longer, thinner vertical vents used as decorative elements as much as for airflow. In the center, they frame an entirely new infotainment system. An 11.2-inch, portrait-mounted screen sits canted slightly to the driver’s side.
Volvo says pixel density on the screen has increased by 21%, “resulting in an even crisper display.”
What’s on the screen borrows from lessons learned in Volvo’s electric cars. The company explains, “We now present the most common apps and controls, such as maps, media, and phone on the home screen,” requiring fewer taps to access the things you use often. A context bar beneath displays recently used apps, so you can return to a setting you just changed with one tap.
Physical buttons and a volume knob beneath mean some vital functions don’t require the touchscreen at all. Volvo is getting ahead of a likely European law with that one.
Volvo says the 2025½ XC90 is available for order today, but production won’t start until near the end of the year.
