After the manic frenzy of our 100th issue last month, it was nice to settle into a regular issue this time around. Regular, of course, means virtually as much frenzy – planes, cars, bikes (in this case, snowmobiles and choppers as well), and even three-wheelers on occasion. What stood out for me, though, was the Volvo XC90 – the result of a clean sheet, ground-up development that drew up a bill in excess of 10 billion dollars. Now, for that kind of money, you’d expect a pretty first-rate finished product. Fortunately, they have one! But the approach that they’ve taken towards developing it is the impressive bit. The platform is scalable – it’ll be stretched and compressed to fit various models over the years. The engines are all 2.0-litre four-cylinder units that achieve the latest magic number when it comes to engine displacement – 500cc per cylinder. To fool people into believing that the engines are bigger than they really are, Volvo has slapped on (when I say slapped on I mean that they’ve so finely engineered it that I didn’t quite comprehend much when they explained it to me) a turbo as well as a supercharger that work in tandem to create over 300 galloping horses. The architecture has also been designed to very cleverly conceal an electric motor and battery pack while still being able to retain a third row of seats. The most impressive thing for me, though, was the infotainment system. While carmakers are getting their knickers in a twist about Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Volvo has developed a proprietary system better than anything in the market already. Not only is the interface better, but so is the touchscreen and sound system. All of this bodes well for Volvo – not only because the XC90 is likely to be a very successful model for them once again, but it also suggests that the Chinese top management and Scandinavian engineers understand each other very well. They haven’t succumbed to the temptation of rushing to market with a new model that’s been cobbled together using a sketch pen and a glue stick. They’ve gone about it properly. There’s one other thing that could be of interest to prospective Indian buyers of the Volvo. You see, the Swedes have always been a caring bunch (other than the Vikings I suppose) – and this time they’ve fitted a filter in the air conditioning system that can purportedly filter particulate matter. Perhaps they were paying attention to the latest WHO report that claims the Indian capital is the most polluted city in the world. The WHO says that New Delhi averages 153 micrograms of small particulates per cubic metre of air. The United States Environmental Protection Agency states that a safe average is, in fact, closer to 15 micrograms. No wonder Obama was discouraged from breathing while in the capital recently. When he had no choice but to gasp for breath, he was immediately informed about exactly how much he had reduced his lifespan. What of the rest of us then? Perhaps we can convince the new Delhi Government that we each need a brand new XC90 – they seem a reasonable bunch after all...
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