Volvo probably isn’t the first brand expect to build a bulletproof vehicle, but I really wonder why that is. The company is famed for using boron steel in many of its cars and building cars that could frequently outpaced official safety standards by years. So maybe, a literally bulletproof Volvo XC90 fits right into the company image.
Well that’s what just got released today anyway. The Volvo XC90 Armoured takes all the great traits about the Volvo XC90 Inscription model and adds layers of security and protection around it.
Just like the Range Rover Sentinel, the Volvo XC90 Armoured is certified to the VR8 standard.
Here’s what the VR8 standard entails:
The ‘VR8’ standard means it can withstand penetration from 7.62mm bullets fired from a rifle just 10 metres away. In other words, you can empty an AK47 on the car and its occupants would be just fine. What’s more, this standard specified that the bullet can be fired from any angle.
This also means that smaller projectiles won’t work on the vehicle either. This includes 9mm, 357 Magnum, 44 Remington Magnum, 308 Winchester rounds and more. Volvo also claim that is has a certain degree of explosive resistance in addition to its ballistic resistance.
This vehicle is built on the T6 AWD platform, which we don’t get here. The closest Malaysians probably got to this configuration was probably the S90 T6 AWD models that were briefly sold here are imported versions. These also sit on the SPA platform, but had a few performance parts in the mix.
Interestingly, Volvo don’t do the bulletproofing in-house. After the base car is finished in Torslanda, it is shipped to TRASCO Bremen. This German company is a specialist in this sort of thing. They end up putting an additional 1400 kg of steel, glass and equipment to the car to make it safer.
Now, the XC90 is already a rather heavy car. With all this armour and equipment, it can end up having to haul 4,490kg (including 5 occupants), which means the suspension and brakes are upgraded too. This version of the car is actually called XC90 Armoured (heavy), and we can imagine why. There is a light version available on the XC60 and XC90 platforms with the same powertrain.
Needless to say, these cars aren’t being made for Malaysian roads. They are instead targetted for more violence-prone regions like South America. Brazil is its primary market.
