Peek inside the new Volvo XC90

Here are the first pictures of the brand new Volvo XC90. Well, pictures of its innards, anyway.

Today, Volvo is beginning its launch tease for its upcoming SUV, showing us the car from the ‘inside out'. And as you'll see, it's a very nice inside.

We're told it's the most luxurious interior to have ever been designed for a Volvo, taking its inspiration from Swedish design and including a giant, tablet-like touch-screen control console that sits at the heart of the dashboard. It's huge.

It's button-free and gives you access to a wide range of Internet based providings, naturally. Elsewhere there's the usual slathering of soft leather, wood, and hand-crafted details such as a gearlever made of crystal glass, and diamond-cut controls for the start/stop and volume control.

The new XC90 will sit on Volvo's Scalable Product Architecture - a modular platform that allows a wider range of design possibilities, better safety features (it is a Volvo) and more interior space. These are good, honourable things.

We'll see the outside of the all-new XC90 later this summer. On the evidence of the recent design studies from new Volvo styling boss Thomas Ingenlath, we're quietly excited...