Volvo XC90 Excellence is the ultimate luxury XC90

The Volvo XC90 Excellence – revealed ahead of a debut at the 2015 Shanghai Motor Show – is the ultimate luxury XC90. But the UK isn’t getting it.

[nggallery id=2094 template=customlinks]

If Land Rover can do it with the Range Rover SVAutobioghraphy, Volvo can do it with the new XC90 Excellence, an ultra-luxury take on the new XC90, revealed today ahead of a debut at the Shanghai Motor Show.

You’d be hard-pushed to work out that the Excellence is the range-topping XC90 from the outside – and that’s not just a lack of familiarity with the new XC90 – but you’ll have no trouble working out from the interior that this is an XC90 that’s a notch or two up on the rest of the range.

Gone are the seven seats of the regular XC90, with the back five replaced by just two individual rear seats with lots of lounging space and plenty of cosseting toys and technology.

That means seats that recline and massage – and heat and cool – with retractable control touchscreen, fridge, holders for the bottle of bubbles and Swedish Crystal glasses, heated/cooling cup holder, footrests, ambient lighting, luggage compartment dividing screen and unique leather. It all looks a very nice place to be.

Volvo XC90 Excellence – the money’s in the interior

Other titivations for the Excellence include an upgrade to the already impressive Bowers & Wilkins sound, integrated ionic air cleaner, leather instrument panel with contrasting stitching and some minor exterior tweaks including ‘Excellence’ badges and extra chrome.

Thomas Ingenlath, Volvo Design VP, said:

This is our new flagship car.
We have created the ultimate luxury experience of Scandinavian design. Volvo has never launched a car like this before. This is the car that demonstrates what the name Volvo now means…what we have designed is amongst the best rear seat experiences available in a luxury car.
The result is a superlative environment for relaxed comfort or doing business.

The trouble is, Volvo UK has decided the XC90 Excellence won’t be available in the UK, which seems something of a shame.

It’s not going to be cheap – certainly more than the £68k First Edition – but it’s not going to cost anything like the £150k Range Rover SVAutobiography, whether you opt for the D5, T6 or T8 version.

And we’d have thought that would have meant a UK market entry would be viable – and make a real statement too.