Volvo S90: Volvo's 5-Series rival revealed

Image 1 of 11

Volvo has revealed the S90, its new executive car penned for delivery in 2016.

The car will go up against expected new entries including BMW's new 5-Series (expected in 2017), the upcoming Mercedes E-Class (likely to be revealed early next year), the Jaguar XF and others.

To be revealed publicly at the Detroit motor show in January, the S90 represents the company's latest generation of cars and shares the 'scalable product architecture' of the XC90 SUV, and the same range of 4-cylinder engines.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The T8 hybrid sits on top of the pile - but is detuned to 316bhp in the S90, rather than the 394bhp available in the XC90.

One of the most exciting developments is a semi-autonomous drive feature, Pilot Assist. The system can read road markings and alter steering automatically. An improvement on the XC90's system, it can now operate at up to 80mph.

There's a new safety feature, which can detect large animals such as Elk or Horses. The collision avoidance system works day or night and can warn the driver of an upcoming hazard, or even brake automatically.

Looks-wise, the S90 uses the design language introduced by the XC90, with the 'Thor's Hammer' LED lights at the front. The interior continues to be Scandinavian-inspired, using many of the interior design cues used in the XC90, and a large touch-screen at the heart of the cockpit.

If the power on offer isn't enough to tempt some drivers at launch, Volvo may have an answer in the form of a Polestar version later on in the car's lifecycle, says Autocar.

Such a version would be likely to build on the hybrid power-train used in the T8, and might be offered as a wagon instead of a saloon body.

Autocar also suggests that the S90 might not sit atop the Volvo saloon hierarchy for long, and a saloon with a five-metre wheelbase and a six-figure price could be on the cards.

Volvo's plan for the S90 in the UK is modest. According to Top Gear, it only aims to sell around 2,000 a year, hoping to poach 500 customers from each of the car's main rivals, such as the Mercedes E-Class and BMW 5-Series. In comparison, BMW sell 15,000 5-Series a year in Britain.

Auto Express reports the same no-pressure attitude from Volvo UK managing director Nick Connor.

"We don't have to chase volume," he told the magazine, which hazards a guess that the car will start from £32,000 when prices are revealed and order books open next spring.