THE 2016 VOLVO XC90 T6 is pretty newsy, as we say in the trades. A new all-wheel-drive vehicle architecture with seven-passenger seating; a complex 2.0-liter, 313-hp supercharged and turbocharged four-cylinder engine with eight-speed auto; interior décor and fitment like glory’s gates, darling; and a wowing list of driver-assist tech (accident-avoiding automatic braking, for example) meant to reassert Volvo VOLVY -0.36 % ’s ethos of progressive safety.  The Torslanda, Sweden-based firm has vowed to reduce death and serious injuries involving its cars to zero by the year 2020, including safeguarding those outside the vehicle, like cyclists and pedestrians. Even those who have it coming.  Are you actually in the market for a luxury SUV? Your timing is propitious. This thing plants a tasteful Scandinavian ax between the ears of several prominent players, including the BMW BMW -0.01 % X5, Audi NSU 0.89 % Q7 and—aaeiii!—the relevant Lincoln.  There is a queue, however. Volvo reports it has taken 57,000 orders globally, a tidy 14% above the line. They have put on another shift of elves at Torslanda to crank them out.  Friend and foe alike are glad to see Volvo back. In Monterey this month I chauffeured two of the most cruelly judgmental car snobs I know in an XC90 T6 Inscription edition ($55,400 before options, $66,705 as tested). They climbed in the mid-row of space-station-style bucket seats and promptly declared it brilliant. Volvo is quite pleased with its safer seat design, which incorporates a crush structure to absorb crash energy in the vertical axis—the kind of backbreaking that might occur if you drove off the road. The cabin is banded in a wainscoting of diagonally grained lumber, and it’s lurid with indirect lighting like a Stockholm oxygen bar. My God, this thing looks like adults designed it.  The XC90 is the Big Pivot, product-wise. It’s the first model to be built on the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) that will soon underpin just about everything Volvo sells in the U.S. Rather than aluminum, SPA places its structural bets on exotic strains of high-strength boron steel. Aluminum, though lighter, typically requires parts to be larger to carry the same loads; in other words, aluminum consumes packaging space. The SPA’s relatively low-profile construction brilliantly carves out interior cubic inches, allowing it to situate true, three-row seating, arm’s-length spaciousness, and ample cargo.  If you fold flat both rows of seats, the XC90 presents a whopping 85 cubic feet of cargo space. BMW X5? 66. Range Rover Sport: 62. Jeep Grand Cherokee: 68. Mercedes-Benz GLC: 56. You get the idea.  Steel is also famously resilient. Volvo promises SPA-based vehicles will be its most crash-hardened automobiles ever. I believe it. The slo-mo crash test video is appalling.  But in the first minute behind the wheel, your hero is a guy named Robin Page. Hired away from Bentley, Volvo’s director of interior design ushered in the XC90’s smart, debonair and impeccably Scandinavian style notes, and it’s he who splurged on top-shelf materials, including the crystal-glass gearshift sourced from Orrefors, lah-tee-dah. The cabin’s marquee item is what Volvo calls the Sensus Connect interface, a 9-inch central portrait touch screen amid a sensual rhythm of book-matched, natural-finish wood trim and topstitched leather everything across the front cabin. All the cabin landmarks, from vents to steering controls, are limned in pencil-thin polished brightwork.  The touch screen in our test car, which uses an infrared sensor to react even before you touch the screen, did not operate quite flawlessly. Mine kept presenting me with the seat-temperature controls when I raised my hand anywhere nearby.  But the navi, phone, connected functions and audio—here hooked up to the Bowers & Wilkins premium surround sound ($2,650)—were fluent and didactic, with serene, sophisticated graphics.  It’s the little things. The Start switch between the seats is a lightly twisting electric switch with a hammered-metal ring. Behind that, the drive-mode selector is a small, rotating drum with the same hand-hammered pattern. Is this a distant metaphorical nod to Thor’s Mjolnir?  The central console’s concealer panel—of sustainable wood, I trust—is laser cut in thin segments so as to appear solid when closed, an obvious quote of Scandinavian carved-wood design. In case you missed the point, tiny Swedish flags are tastefully sewn into the shoulders of the leather seats.  Crucially, this architecture will accommodate a plug-in powertrain. Coming late this year, the XC90 T8 Twin Engine hybrid will augment the T6’s 313-hp super-turbo with an 87-hp electric motor to the back axles. Total output is rated at 400 hp and a wild 472 pound-feet of torque, to go with its Prius-like 59 grams carbon per kilometer.  That’s on point: If the current XC90 has a soft spot, it’s in the initial effort and feeling of strain in acceleration. It feels as if something is missing because it is: that urgency off idle that an electric-traction motor would provide. It’s just a moment of gracelessness, then it passes. The 4,627-pound Volvo accelerates with mood-stabilized tranquility to 60 mph in 6.1 seconds. Our tester was fitted with four-corner air suspension ($1,800), replacing the coils and integrated link of standard T6 models, and shod with 21-inch wheels.  The XC90 is exceedingly amiable to drive—electric steering is light, the minimum turning radius is city-friendly; and if you want, it will find a parking spot and put you in it (Park Assist, part of the $1,800 Convenience package). The designed-in serenity will have you questioning materialism itself. Just toppers, Sven.  However, if you are the sort who hates newfangled gadgets, this is not the car for you—except you’re probably the kind of driver who most could benefit. Our car fairly bristled with sensors and cameras of various purpose and wavelength, including the sizable optical unit at the windshield header, enabling the car to see lane markings on road, keep to the lane and follow the car ahead at a selected distance.  While this function isn’t automatic—some minimum driver involvement is required, just to make sure you’re still awake—it’s an extraordinary, now-ordinary step forward in lowering driver workload, appearing in lots of premium and luxury cars. Stop shaking your cane at me.  More intriguing still is Volvo’s City Safety automatic braking, to avoid or mitigate collision with another car, as well as to avoid pedestrians and cyclists. If you try to pull out in front of crossing traffic, the car will try very hard to warn you and stop you. It watches cross traffic at the rear as well. It can also sense an impending rear-end collision and brace for impact.  Even the XC90’s warning chimes of impending death are pleasant.  Write to Dan Neil at Dan.Neil@wsj.com
In search of a stately SUV with safety features galore and a palatial seven-seat interior? Behold the Volvo XC90 T6.