Volvo S90

When you think of Volvo, you likely don’t think of quick luxury cars. No, you think of safety. They are an automaker that is known for telling their engineers to go crazy with performance on a project and those same engineers manage to make a vehicle just a bit safer.

Outside of a few sportier cars, this has been the general rule for the company. However, the new Volvo S90 could change this perception quite a bit. The key competition will be the BMW 5 Series which has more of a luxury performance car vibe, especially in M trim.

Click past the jump (or scroll down if you came directly to the full article) to find out more about the Volvo S90.

The S90 nameplate was introduced in 1996 (although it came from the 960), but it only remained until 1998 when it was replaced by the S80. This new S90 will be a mid-sized luxury sedan with some very good performance available.

Rumors have the new sedan offering as much as 400 horsepower in hybrid form. The platform is to be shared with the XC90 and the power plant options will likely be the same as are currently available in the SUV. Since the 400 horsepower hybrid drivetrain is the top of the line for that model it will likely be the same for the new sedan. There is a also speculation of an eventual M5 competitor that could have over 500 horsepower, but none of this is yet confirmed.

Rumor has performance of the range topping hybrid being capable of a 0-60 mph time of 6 seconds flat with a top speed of 155 mph. The S90 is thought to start around $45,000 when it is available in dealerships the second half of 2016.

The above image from our friends at TopSpeed shows what they think the new Volvo will look like. What do you think of it?