2017 Volvo V90 Cross Country: A Familiar Formula Applied to a Beautiful Wagon

Please don’t confuse the new Volvo V90 Cross Country wagon with the recently released 2016 XC90 crossover. While both feature all-wheel drive, room for at least five, and unmistakable Swedish bloodlines, the former is a no-bones-about-it crossover, whereas the latter is a sculpted hunk of Swedish wagonoid art that happens to ride a tad higher than its V90 sibling.

The final piece of the 90-series puzzle, the V90 Cross Country represents the latest interpretation of nearly 20 years of Cross Country models. Built on the maker’s SPA platform (for Scalable Product Architecture), the new V90 Cross Country is no mere aesthetic package, Volvo claims, but a “blend of powerful off-road capability in a most elegant, sophisticated, tailored wagon suit.” We get that, given how taken we are with the regular V90’s styling and the fact that the model seen here is essentially a lifted version of that model. The Cross Country has black plastic trim on its rocker panels and wheel arches, as well as significantly bigger wheels, but the two V90s could otherwise be mistaken for twins.

The V90 Cross Country will utilize the same turbo- and supercharged 2.0-liter T6 four-cylinder that is good for 316 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque in other applications. It will be paired with an eight-speed automatic and all-wheel drive. A hybrid version also is possible, as Volvo’s all-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid T8 Twin Engine powertrain already exists in the mechanically related XC90 crossover. It employs three primary modes of operation, including EV (able to drive at speeds up to 75 mph), Hybrid (switching among its gas engine, electric power, and a combo thereof), and Power (in which the engine and the electric motor combine to produce 400 horsepower and 472 lb-ft of torque). As with the new XC90, the V90 Cross Country will offer four-cylinder power exclusively, as Volvo has stated it won’t be offering engines with more than four cylinders in any of its vehicles.

Of the admittedly tiny number of rugged, off-road-capable AWD wagons available in the States (how’s it going, Subaru Outback?), the V90 Cross Country is the sexiest yet. The V90 Cross Country will arrive early next year, ahead of the regular V90. Expect pricing to start around $56,000.