Throughout the last few decades of car design, it’s been an unspoken rule that any given car design’s shelf life is about seven or eight years before the dreaded word dated starts punctuating consumer impressions and professional opinions. There will almost always be a mid-cycle refresh about half way into said shelf life as well, which typically entails mild facelift and maybe some new features to keep things feeling fresh—lest your product start looking stale. I think it speaks volumes to how successful Volvo design is, given that this 2025.5 Volvo XC90 is the first refresh to this model in nearly a decade. They didn’t even have to do all that much!
What’s new for 2025?
To be clear, this isn’t an all-new, clean-sheet design. That would typically be the case at this advanced age, but this is just a nip-and-tuck that usually occurs at middle age. Volvo isn’t rushing to fix what wasn’t broken, because XC90 has always been about as good as it gets. Plus, Volvo’s very thoughtful and clean style has never been broken, so they’ve only just come around to tweaking it now. For this halfway point between 2025 and 2026, the XC90 gets a slightly revised front end with a slightly more slick bumper and hood design; a less ornate, more art-deco grille; and updated LED lighting bringing it in-line with Volvo’s newest models like the EX30 and EX90.
The interior of the updated XC90 gets some pretty meaningful tweaks. Volvo reworked the dashboard design here with some new material choices, with prominent use of textile across the dash’s simplified, straighter lines. The tweaks aren’t obvious—you’d need a side-by-side comparison to pick them out—but they do help the XC90 feel just a smidge more contemporary. It’s perhaps even a little visually cleaner than before, as if that was even possible within the realm of good taste.
Interior ergonomics and tech
A much more obvious change is the large 11.2-inch central touchscreen. It very subtly floats over the dashboard, almost as if it’s spilling out of the old eight-inch screen’s opening. Said new screen is running the same Android Automotive software deployed in the newest Volvo and Polestar vehicles. It’s dominated by a thoughtfully laid-out home screen prominently featuring Google Maps, as well as smaller tiles for media, phone connectivity, and context-sensitive shortcuts that change with use.
It’s sharp and snappy, looks great and works well, and is a huge update that neatly addresses the only thing that kind of dated the outgoing XC90. Personally, this is my favourite implementation of this interface. The EX30’s implementation of very similar software felt a little overbearing with things that don’t matter, and oversimplified with things that do. Moreover, while the separate digital instrument cluster display was a boon in the Polestar 3, but the interface was a tad buggy there. Conversely, this 2025.5 Volvo XC90 just feels like a lovely upgrade with no caveats. It’s a great meld of old and new, never feeling like it’s being too smart for its own good.
Ditto goes for the rest of the cabin, which unlike the other new kids in Volvo’s lineup, doesn’t give up any tactile controls in the pursuit of ultra-minimalism cleverly disguised as cost-cutting. Everything that was there before remains, and still works well. There will be very little learning curve for existing XC90 owners looking for a little upgrade, or for anyone else, really. It’s a smartly laid-out cabin with lots of space and storage that’s lovely to behold and easy to live with.
What’s under the hood?
Existing XC90 owners might be surprised and delighted to experience the new-ish—and fabulous—plug-in hybrid powertrain fitted to our loaded T8 Ultra tester. It was actually rolled out two years ago for the 2023 model year, putting aside the previous, convoluted supercharged-and-turbocharged setup in favour of a new 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder over the front wheels. It produces 310 horsepower on its own, and works with a torquey, mechanically disparate electric motor embedded in the rear axle.
Combined output is 455 horsepower and 523 pound-feet of torque. It’s more than enough to make this XC90 properly quick, enabling it to sprint from rest to 100 km/h in five seconds. More than that, by a having a powertrain with completely separated combustion and electric propulsion, it truly provides a best-of-both-worlds experience. Power delivery is instantaneous and impeccably smooth like an electric vehicle, with the added shove and range-increasing backup plan that is the fuel-fired engine when needed.
Fuel economy and driving impressions
With the 14.7 kWh battery topped after a few hours on a Level 2 charger, the XC90 plug-in hybrid can go 51 kilometers on electric power alone. It’s also quite happy to accelerate to and doddle along at highway speeds without firing the gas engine at all. I love how the power meter clearly and cleverly telegraphs when your foot’s position is going to fire the fuel burner, so you can easily keep it from starting.
Over the course of my time with this tester, I never plugged it in. Instead, I relied entirely on the hybrid interplay to manage energy generation and consumption and ended up seeing an average fuel use of 9.4 L/100 kilometres—not bad at all given that I deliberately neglected its fuel saving capability just to see what it could do. I’ve sung the praises of this powertrain every time I’ve had it; it’s among the best plug-in hybrids in the business.
Other changes for the 2025.5 Volvo XC90 include slightly tweaked suspension calibration and added noise deadening material, neither of which I can honestly speak to. The XC90 might ride a tiny bit more softly than before, but it’s hard to tell when it was already so well-judged especially on the optional air suspension system. The rest of the XC90 is comfortable and plush, with well-controlled body motions and confidence-inspiring handling thanks to Volvo’s carefully calibrated driver controls. I have the same “problem” with the reduced road noise—there wasn’t really much of it before, and it’s hard to pick out over the fabulous 1,400-watt Bowers & Wilkins sound system.
Is the updated XC90 worth it?
That’s it: the finally-not-finally refreshed 2025.5 Volvo XC90 is about as good as it gets as far as luxury SUVs go. Our loaded tester maxed out at $101,815 as-tested, which isn’t cheap by any stretch, but it’s not a bad price to pay when you could go pay more elsewhere and get less power, space, tech—and less overall loveliness. It really speaks to the success of sensible design when, this deep into its life cycle, so little needs to be improved for the XC90 to remain as good as it gets.
