Meet the Volvo XC90 Armoured, an SUV that’s specifically designed and built to provide the highest level of personal protection for onboard occupants. The creation of the XC90 Armoured is based on the numerous requests by Volvo’s customers, and the development of the SUV took a little over two years.
The Volvo XC90 Armoured is based on the T6 AWD variant, the latter manufactured at the Torslanda plant in Sweden. For the armoured build, Volvo commissioned Trasco Bremen, a German company that specialises in building high-quality vehicles with high protection ratings.
How much protection does it offer, you ask? Well, first of all, the SUV is VPAM VR8 certified, meaning that it has 360-degree ballistic and explosive resistance. This is courtesy of a high-strength steel armour measuring 10 millimetres thick, while the thickness of the glass can be up to 50 millimetres, if you so wish.
The armour adds approximately 1,400 kg to the XC90, which brings the total weight of the car up to an astonishing 4,490kg (including five occupants). To cope with the massive increase in weight, the car is fitted with uprated suspension and new brakes.
Volvo Cars Special Vehicles marketing director, Stephan Green said: “We are proud to be able to offer these armoured cars. With our armoured cars, we can provide vehicles with a high level of personal security for individuals who require heightened protection.”
“The XC90 Armoured with VR8* protection rating (VPAM BRV 2009/ERV 2010) enables us to offer a car that provides a high level of protection while retaining the car’s fundamental properties. Potential customers include security services who would use the car to transport high-profile individuals,” he added.
Green also said production is classified, with stringent procedures and supervision in order to attain the stipulated ballistic requirements. “The armour is fitted discreetly to make the car barely distinguishable from a standard XC90. Every customer also has their own unique requirements, which we satisfy by means of customised production,” Green explained.
Volvo’s experience of building police cars goes back to 1929, and has since created fire engines and diverse special vehicles with high requirements in terms of function, drivability and safety.
The Volvo XC90 Armoured can be ordered immediately, with first batch deliveries slated to begin at the end of the year. There are also other version of armoured car (light), and they are built on the XC60 T6 AWD Inscription or XC90 T6 AWD Inscription.
These versions are geared towards different clientele than the XC90 Armoured (heavy). Users could be individuals or companies requiring a car with a higher level of protection due to a geographical risk or a heightened personal threat. A market for these types of protective vehicles also exists among security services, the police, the diplomatic corps and private individuals.
The cars are intended for Latin America and Europe. After construction, they are retrofitted in Brazil, where there is considerable demand for these types of cars as well as substantial experience of building them. These vehicles are designed to offer lighter protection compared with the XC90 Armoured. Sales of these cars are scheduled to begin in the first half of 2020.
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Suddenly I remember a movie titled “Dolan’s Cadillac”. Ha ha.
“In his experimental law of impacts, Sir Isaac Newton describes something called the arc of descent. It’s all about kinetics, mass, velocity, the inertia of falling persons and things. Once a descending object acquires a certain momentum, it continues on a downward parabolic curve to eventually impact with an immovable object at the nadir, the bottom, thereby consummating the arc of descent.”
Deeeep.. Newton came up that teori when he sitting in his garden. An apple falls on his head.
you sir must be a splendid life at parties… :)
Ha ha. Those are not my quote. Its from the movie. You guys should watch it. Its about a woman witnesses a murder by a Bapak Ayam (BA). The BA then killed the woman. The woman’s husband seek a revenge, but how to kill the BA when he’s always with his bodyguards and driving inside a bullet-proof Cadillac?
I could imagined this Volvo next to the G63.
4.5 tonnes?
might as well go for army armoured vehicles. can mount a minigun too
“meaning that it has 360-degree ballistic and explosive resistance”
Excuse me, VP8 means it’s tested by 3 shots with an assault rifle 7.62 x 39mm (AK-47) and 1 shot with an 20mm STANAG Fragment Simulation Projectile (FSP) .
VP8 does not cover blast protection, therefore the vehicle would have been tested according classes DM31, DM51 or M67 too.
XC90
Crazy and stupid motorcycle doing zig-zag in traffic jam and bang my car from behind because he couldn’t stop in time when everyone slowed down.
How I wished I was driving this beast, the damage will probably a few scratch mark instead of dent rear bonnet and cracked bumper. As what will happen to him, I don’t really care.
Nope,interior+under body extra weld plate & glass protection only, outside body part like bumper,front grill,lamp still original part.even military hummer declare total lost if asian Honda cub bang them :)