VOLVO XC60

Does nip and tuck for top-selling Volvo go far enough?

- MATT SAUNDERS

Somewhere in a parallel universe without CO 2 emissions and electric cars, an all-new Volvo XC60 was launched to the press last week. In that world, just as in ours, it has lately become the most important car the company makes - the most popular model it has ever sold, no less. It would be crazy not to invest large in a car like that.

And yet here we are. In our world, what we're getting amounts to little more than a lightly facelifted version of the second-generation XC60, itself launched in 2017, in a similar vein to what we have seen with the big-brother XC90. An all-electric EX60 will be along in 2026, and at that point this car will soldier on in showrooms much as the XC90 is expected to do now, a little like a septuagenarian schoolmaster just months from retirement whose five grandchildren suddenly move in at home under tragic circumstances, and all need new shoes and hot dinners.

Or that is how it looks. Truth is, plenty of other car makers extend the life of existing models in a similar way, as all the R&D cash goes into electric models that may or may not ever deliver a return. Many of those manufacturers just do a better job of making mutton look - and, figuratively at least, taste - like lamb.