Volvo Upgrades the XC60 & XC90 Plug-in Hybrids with Significantly More Fully Electric Range

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Volvo’s design and engineering teams have been hard at work on a mid-cycle refresh of its full SUV lineup. They invited CleanTechnica out to London to be some of the first people in the world outside the company to see and learn about the newly refreshed vehicles.

Most importantly, the refreshed plug-in hybrids come with double the fully electric range across the board. The updated vehicles also get a design refresh, new safety gear, and meaningful updates to all the goodies on the inside.

Disclaimer: Volvo paid for the author’s travel and accommodations to attend this event.

Combined with the updates last week, Volvo is delivering significant refreshes to over 60% of the Volvo portfolio by sales volume. That’s a massive update, and while adding a long-range plug-in hybrid option isn’t the sexiest update around and we would have preferred some new fully electric offerings, it’s understandable given the current political climate, especially in the US.

In addition, the longer range of the plug-in hybrid offerings that come with this refresh will help Volvo owners get more comfortable driving on fully electric mode and plugging in to charge at home. Changing behavior has been one of the key challenges for owners shifting from internal combustion vehicles and even hybrids into fully electric vehicles, so there’s hope that this new set of attractive long-range plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will help break down those barriers.

2028 XC60 Refresh

Volvo updated the XC60 for the 2028 model year with a ton of new features, but the one we’re most excited about is an upgrade to its fully electric range. All told, the company delivered what is effectively a completely new vehicle. The exterior and interior design updates are meaningful and noticeable.

The reason we’re here to talk to you about them is related to the upgrade to the plug-in hybrid variant, which delivers a significant increase in range up to a truly impressive 124 miles/200 kilometers of range per charge. That’s far more than the average commuter driving 20–30 miles per day will use in a work week, making it much more practical to use it as a fully electric vehicle, letting drivers charge when it’s convenient instead of requiring them to plug in every single night.

The additional range is made possible due to a higher-capacity 41.2 kWh nominal / 37.9 kWh usable battery that Volvo’s team integrated into the floor in more of a skateboard configuration. That’s a shift from the previous location in the transmission tunnel mount. The new location gives Volvo more room for a larger battery and also lowers the center of mass for the vehicle, which improves handling and safety.

To make it a more comfortable experience, Volvo also upgraded the motor in the vehicle with a bit more power, making the fully electric driving experience less of a compromise — though, it will still call on the internal combustion engine if the driver needs additional power.

For the US market, the new Volvo XC60 will be built in Volvo’s existing Charleston, South Carolina, factory. Global customers will be supplied from Volvo’s largest factory in the world in Torslanda, Sweden, where 6,500 employees crank out ~300,000 vehicles per year.

On the outside, Volvo gave the new XC60 a fully refreshed exterior with a more modern Thor’s Hammer headlight design and a slimmer grille with more defined design lines that transition into the sculpted, sophisticated hood.

The lines carry back to the rear of the vehicle where the new tailgate design tapers off the vehicle with a final touch of sophistication and class. The new tailgate is accentuated by a pair of bright new LED taillights that run from the center line of the vehicle up to a much more visible high point on the tailgate.

As with the XC40 and EX40 refresh last week, safety was a key deliverable with the XC60 refresh. It’s also getting a full safety upgrade with a new suite of sensors and updated core computer that allows Volvo to deliver some significant new features on the safety front, including automatic emergency steering, automatic emergency braking, collision avoidance and mitigation features, and door opening alert to avoid opening doors into the path of passing cyclists or traffic.

The optional Pilot Assist has been bolstered with lane change assist and an optional 360° camera with 3D view. Both are exciting, as they really push the envelope on Volvo’s approach to active safety systems in their vehicles.

2028 XC90 Refresh

The XC90 design language was the freshest of the bunch and is already finding solid traction with customers around the world, so there were no major design updates. Though, Volvo did remove the lidar from the front windshield, making it much streamlined for the model year.

The XC90 long-range plug-in hybrid will get the same battery upgrade as the XC60, moving to a 41.2 nominal / 37.9 usable battery pack located under the floorboard. That translates to an impressive fully electric range of 102 miles / kilometers on the WLTP test cycle.

Software plagued the early models of the XC90 and EX90, and Volvo continues to push out over-the-air updates to improve the stability of the system and deliver new features. As part of this refresh cycle, Volvo is pushing out Google Gemini in-car to the full refreshed lineup.

It will be interesting to see not only how well the system works but how buyers respond to the increasing use of AI in vehicles and how useful the integrations actually are. It’s a tough balance to deliver more than just an agent that can answer generic questions when customers are looking for something that can actually interact with their vehicle, change navigation instructions, and more.

Overall

The updated aesthetics of the XC60 really are a stark contrast from its predecessor, giving it a much more sophisticated and refined exterior.

At the same time, Volvo has delivered meaningful updates to its safety stack, with new sensors and a safety computer that allows for the integration of future updates as they continue to deliver new safety features after the vehicle has shipped to customers.

The most important update here for us is really the additional range. Upgrading the batteries with a mid-cycle refresh like this really can help to transition driver behavior from a rather meager range on the previous plug-in hybrid version to the current version, which is more range than many electric vehicles had just 10 years ago.

We’re hoping to get some time in the seat with these new vehicles by the end of the year, and we’ll let you know how Volvo’s promises pan out when the rubber actually hits the road.

For more information about the new XC60 and XC90, head over to volvo.com.