Volvo XC90 B5 R-Design Review

Note: The driving in this review took place before the U.K. was placed into coronavirus-related lockdown.

Telling friends that you’re in the market for a diesel SUV, in environmentally conscious 2020, may raise an uninformed eyebrow or two. It’s easy to assume that any large vehicle fed by fuel from the black pump is to be considered a blight on society, yet this doesn’t have to be the case.

Step forward the Volvo XC90 B5, a mild hybrid diesel that uses a 48-volt electrical system to generate electricity when braking, then uses this to help out the engine when the driver next accelerates. Such technology offers manufacturers a convenient stepping stone on the journey from internal combustion, to plug-in hybrids, and finally to fully electric vehicles.

Mild hybrids also help consumers take their first small, tentative step into electrification. There’s no need to find a charging station (because mild hybrids cannot be plugged in), and no range anxiety either, yet the car’s economy is improved while emissions and fuel bills are cut.

And so to the XC90 B5. Volvo’s handsome SUV has been with us in its current form for a while now, and received only the mildest of facelifts—and the new mild hybrid powertrain - for the 2020 model year. To my eyes, there was no need to tinker with a winning recipe, and I’m pleased to see the XC90 in 2020 guise remains as attractive as ever. Far less brash than its German rivals, while serving up Land Rover luxury without shouting about it in quite the same way.

It’s a lovely looking thing, made a little sharper by the R-Dynamic package my review car came equipped with, but none the worse for it.

Inside, the XC90 oozes a sense of calm. It doesn’t try to tell the driver they’re at the helm of anything remotely sporty, but instead offers tranquility. It’s a place where long journeys felt like no effort at all.

The controls are all of high quality and arranged logically, with a large, 12.3-inch portrait touchscreen used for infotainment and climate, but handing over key controls like music playback and volume to physical buttons and a dial, which is very welcome. It is increasingly common to see manufacturers put every control on the touchscreen—hello, Tesla TSLA —but I think Volvo’s restrained approach is the correct one.

The optional Harman Kardon sound system with Apple CarPlay is excellent, although it is the mid-tier offering, with a top-end Bowers & Wilkins system available for true audiophiles to wrap their ears around.

Another tech highlight of my review car was automated parking which, while rearward visibility is already pretty good and aided by cameras and sensors, was very welcome when trying to park the big Volvo in narrow London side streets.

Space is plentiful for five adults, and an extra pair of fold-out seats comes as standard across the XC90 range. While children will be most suited to the third row, carrying seven adults still falls comfortably into the Volvo’s remit.

And so to the powertrain. This XC90 B5 is powered by a 2.0-liter, four cylinder diesel engine producing 235 horsepower and a hefty 480 newton-meters of torque. Importantly for drivers dripping a first tentative toe into hybrid vehicles, you’d never really know this Volvo has any form of electrical assistance.

I mean that in the best way possible. There is no futuristic noise when you turn the car on, no fancy graphics to show exactly how electricity is being produced and used, or graphs detailing your electrical consumption. Instead, you get a car that harvests energy when braking and uses it to help out the engine under acceleration.

This assistance means a spritely 0-60mph time of 7.1 seconds (no small order for a car weighing 2,103 kg) and a top speed of 137mph. This gives the big Volvo a surprising turn of pace and means that, despite the seemingly compact four-cylinder engine, it has all the power any seven-seat SUV owner will ever feasibly need.

The mild hybrid system imperceptibly gets on with its job, unless you switch into Eco mode, which cuts the engine and coasts if you lift off the accelerator over 40mph. This may sound disconcerting, but it isn’t really noticeable, especially on the motorway when coasting happens most often. Brush the pedal on the right, and the engine quietly springs back into life.

All this helps the XC90 B5 achieve a claimed efficiency of up to 44.1 miles per gallon, which the company says represents a circa 15% saving on the equivalent regular diesel XC90. Naturally, these figures will vary depending on your own circumstances, and I suspect mid- to high-30s is probably closer to the real-world mark. Volvo also says the car emits just 154 g/km of CO2, which is certainly low for a car of this size.

I very much enjoyed my week with the XC90, which involved several hundred miles split between city driving in London, plus road trips up to Yorkshire and across to Essex, ferrying friends and family around over the Christmas period.

It didn’t take long for me to fall for the XC90. Even before driving one, this has always been the SUV I would recommend to anyone who asked.

While a Porsche Cayenne would be more fun and a Range Rover has enormous brand kudos with unsurpassed off-roading capabilities, the Volvo is the thinking person’s SUV. It is by far the best looking of the bunch, with a cabin filled to the brim with Scandinavian hygge. And, if you don’t feel the plug-in T8 flavor of XC90 is the right fit for you, the B5 is where your money should go.

The XC90 range starts at £52,235, while the B5 mild hybrid is priced from £56,585, and the model tested here is £63,160.