Volvo XC90 PUV Concept: One of the first powerful performance SUV’s.

When people hear the name Volvo, they probably think about cars which are very safe, a bit boring, luxurious, not very racy and last but not least; indestructible. Well, Volvo wanted to change its image of being boring and not being racy so they came up with a very special concept car. Vic Doolan, President and CEO of Volvo Cars North America, noted the following: “This was such a fun concept that we just had to do it. It could possibly be the ultimate Volvo. It has all the safety that Volvo is known for with the looks and performance of an exotic car.” Furthermore Mr. Doolan said: “This is just to get the juices flowing; to draw attention from those who may not have considered Volvo before.”

In 2004, Volvo proudly presented the eye-catching XC90 PUV (Performance Utility Vehicle) at the SEMA tradeshow in Las Vegas. An aggressive stance and a fully customized body wasn’t the only thing Volvo had done to gain attention. Volvo’s goal was to create a purebred performance SUV based on the XC90. A 650 hp 4,4 liter Yamaha V8 engine with a massive supercharger, a revised engine mapping and a low restriction exhaust were fitted into the car to provide it with the power it needed to be fast. Extremely fast I would say. To prevent an overheating engine and to get a sufficient amount of cool air into the supercharger’s intercooler, Volvo made a front air dam with a very wide opening.

But giving it just only a big power upgrade was not enough to make a really good performance SUV, so they combined the engine with a new 6-speed automatic “Geartronic” transmission and a modified version of Volvo’s Haldex all-wheel-drive system. This all-wheel-drive system was electronically controlled and was capable to deliver torque to the wheel with to most traction in any circumstances. You could say that the car had a sort of torque vectoring system which was quite uncommon in 2004. Instead of using limited slip differentials, they used this system to get the power down properly.
A high performance braking system was also fitted. Up front, Volvo fitted big 15 inch discs with 8-piston calipers. In the back, 13 inch discs with 4-piston calipers were fitted.

The body of the XC90 PUV was completely different compared to the normal XC90. As I already said, Volvo gave the PUV an aggressive stance and a different body kit with wider wheel arches. Big 20 inch high-performance alloy wheels and four exhaust tips were also fitted to give the exterior an extremely powerful look.

And last but not least, Volvo painted the car in a racy red paint scheme featuring yellow shields with a moose depicted on it were placed on the flanks. Volvo’s nod to the super cars from Italy.

After seeing the concept car and knowing its specs, you can conclude that Volvo absolutely succeeded to make a performance SUV. Unfortunately, the concept car never came into production and that was very unfortunate, because powerful SUVs are quite popular nowadays. After Volvo had launched the XC90 PUV, many more brands came with a powerful performance version of their SUVs. For example, Porsche came up with the Cayenne Turbo, BMW with the X5M, Mercedes with their AMG SUVs and so on. I think that the XC90 PUV may have marked a starting point for powerful SUVs in the automotive industry.

Hopefully, Volvo will build a new performance SUV based on their new XC90 with Polestar. I think they might, I already read some rumors…

Fun fact:

• Polestar wasn’t involved in this project. The whole project was done by Volvo Cars of North America and Aria Group Inc. a design, engineering and manufacturing company. (This company is from Irvine, California and was also involved in the Kia GT4 Stinger concept car project.)

Specs:

• A 4.4 liter Yamaha V8 engine with a front transverse position
• Around 650 hp
• A 6-speed “Geartronic” automatic transmission
• 275/40-ZR20 Pirelli P-Zero Assimetrico tires