Yahoo Autos The Making of an Icon: Volvo XC60 Black Edition
Parked in front of New York City’s legendary TWA Hotel—an icon of American architecture—the Volvo XC60 Black Edition is right at home. For 97 years, Volvo has engineered beautiful vehicles with safety and rider experience as its top priorities. This philosophy has enhanced industry standards—in 1959, for example, Volvo brought the three-point safety belt to the world and then gave its patent to all for free, an act that’s been credited with saving over a million lives—as well as woven a bevy of beloved cars into our shared cultural history. (Vintage-auto enthusiasts might spot the P1800 Easter egg below....) Today, the XC60 Black Edition continues this legacy in a bold new coat.
Available either as a traditional gas car or a mild hybrid, the XC60 midsize SUV is emblematic of the Swedish manufacturer’s characteristically Scandinavian approach to engineering, which values expert craftsmanship over showy-yet-faulty design. But in a rebellious play, the Black Edition is cloaked in a nocturnal sleekness, infusing it with an adventurous spirit Volvo only occasionally lets out of its cage.
From the ironwork on the grill to the normally silver badge to the 21-inch diamond-cut wheels, the car’s entire exterior is cast in Volvo’s signature Onyx Black—a unique execution that emphasizes the dynamic interactions between each curve, contour, and shape of the vehicle. The interior, meanwhile, features charcoal-colored ventilated nappa-leather seats, developed in collaboration with orthopedic experts to ensure a comfortable riding experience. A nine-inch center touch-screen console allows instant access to Google Maps and a 360-degree camera, while an Orrefors crystal shifter provides a luminous counterpoint to the surrounding dark tones. All of this top-of-the-line luxury sits under a stadium-size sunroof, offering light and flexibility for varied weather conditions.
But it’s not just aesthetically that the Black Edition raises the bar. The performance specs of the vehicle continue Volvo’s long history of innovation. Its active chassis with self-adapting air suspension monitors the car, road, and driver 500 times per second—automatically maintaining ride height, lowering the car at higher speeds to reduce drag while raising it higher on rougher terrain for increased ground clearance, and adapting each shock absorber to current driving conditions. Quick, smooth, and surprisingly nimble for an SUV, the car hits a sweet spot in height (65.4 inches) that optimizes viewability and confident handling when you’re behind the wheel.
Each of these engineering decisions was made with driver-vehicle trust as the foremost priority—because what good is sleek design if it’s part of a car you don’t feel secure in? This is still Volvo, after all. Since the 1970s, its Accident Research Team has analyzed more than 43,000 real-life collisions involving over 72,000 occupants in order to continually define new benchmarks for car safety.
Born from this DNA while establishing a new style within it is the XC60 Black Edition. Only one word truly fits the bill when discussing this vehicle: iconic. Having raised the standards in engineering and safety countless times over, Volvo is now showing they can raise eyebrows and heart rates as well.
Explore the Volvo XC60 Black Edition here.
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