The 2020 Volvo XC90 and XC60, both midsize luxury SUVs, qualify for 2020 safety awards from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety after earning an advanced rating in the Institute’s pedestrian crash avoidance test.
The XC90 earns the highest award, TOP SAFETY PICK+, while the XC60 earns the TOP SAFETY PICK award.
To qualify for either award, a vehicle must earn good ratings in six crashworthiness evaluations, including the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. It also needs advanced or superior ratings for both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention.
Award winners must also offer acceptable- or good-rated headlights on at least one trim level. To earn the “plus” designation, a vehicle must have acceptable or good headlights standard on all trim levels.
Both types of headlights offered on the XC90 have an acceptable rating, qualifying it for the highest award. The XC60 misses that mark due to a marginal rating for one of its two headlight packages, which doesn’t provide adequate illumination.
For the vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention rating, vehicles are evaluated in three scenarios simulating an adult pedestrian crossing the road from an unobstructed position, a child crossing the road from behind two parked cars, and an adult walking parallel to the road facing away from the vehicle. The two crossing tests are run at 12 mph and 25 mph, and the parallel test at 25 mph and 37 mph.
Both SUVs come with standard City Safety, Volvo’s front crash prevention system, and earn an advanced rating in the pedestrian evaluations. Both models avoided crashes in the 12 mph crossing tests and 25 mph parallel test. The XC90 also avoided striking the adult crossing dummy at 25 mph. In the trials in which the vehicles didn’t stop, they slowed substantially.
The XC90 is the first Volvo model to earn a 2020 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award. Two other Volvo models, the XC40, a small SUV, and the S60, a midsize sedan, earned TOP SAFETY PICK awards earlier this year.
