Start of production in September 2008
The Volvo XC60 competes with Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Mercedes GLK.
Several innovations equip the car mainly in active safety, lighting and driver assistance safety systems.
3 parts are analysed: Front lighting, Rear lighting and Driver system assistance systems. We start this week with the Front lighting.
The front lighting system comprises 3 parts: the front combination headlamp, the position lamp, and the fog lamp. With this model, Volvo initiate a new styling signature centred around the headlamp shape and the vertical-diagonal position lamp wholly separate from the headlamp.
Headlamp: 4 versions with Halogen/Xenon and Europe/US. Reflector for Halogen and BiXenon + DBL for Xenon.
Position light : Ouside of headlamp, equipped with 3 LED light sources. Possibility of DRL use?
Foglamp : Fogstar concept with plastic lens and H8 bulb.
Headlamp
1) 
BiXenon module : BiXenon module is combined with AFS bending light function
2) Ballast : The mercury free ballast is not yet used for this model.
3) Other factors :
– Pedestrian protection
– Bulb replacement
1) BiXenon module
Standard Valeo module developed several years ago.
The new module is not yet in this car.
– 0.4 Lx isolux curve is very wide (38° L to 36° R)
– Low beam hot spot is around 65Lx (40,625 cd)
– Good homogeneity of the low beam.
2) Ballast
– Standard 5G ballast, not mercury free, adapted to D1S.
– The ballast is thin and can be introduced at lower part of the headlamp.
3) Other factors
– Pedestrian protection
To reduce the consequences of the impact of pedestrian to the headlamp, the housing has a pre-defined weakness line to control how the housing breaks in response to impact.
– Bulb replacement
Volvo and Valeo defined a nice solution to easily replace the bulb. Because there is no room behind the headlamp, the best solution was to desgn an easily-removed headlamp assembly.
Without any tool and with an easy operation, we can remove the headlamp, change the bulb, and reinstall the headlamp.
Position light3 parabolic compartments with one LED each, and an interior lens for styling aspect.
The front end with such a position light reinforces and evolves upon the former signature with a similarly-shaped position light inside the headlamp.
Foglamp
– Plastic lens with 65% weight reduction
– First application of an innovative surface which compensates the low wattage 35W bulb (H8 bulb) with lower glare.
– High width on the right from right fog lamp.
– Standard components excluding styling parts
Picture of XC60 front light with the additional fog light
We can see the large width obtained by the right fog lamp.
The isolux below show the large spread obtained by the left fog lamp.
Conclusion of front lighting analysis
1) No strong innovation of headlamp but a clear styling signature and a new design to improve perceived quality.
2) Interesting fog lamp with a plastic lens and a low wattage bulb. The performances are at good level thanks an optimized surface of reflector with a large light width in on side of the road.
3) Good homogeneity and colour of position light which amplifies the Volvo signature.
4) Two interesting concepts to have an easy bulb replacement and to reduce the impact of pedestrian on the headlamp.