JAC T9 UTE vs Volvo XC90

What's the difference?

It's not the roughest, toughest ute in the marker. Nor is it the smoothest to drive. But I found the T9 easy to live with, and I'm a fan of the value proposition.

The XC90 Recharge makes a lot of sense for a family with a couple of kids, who live and spend most of their time in the city and surrounding suburbs.

You’ll need access to a power point for charging and you’ll have to do it regularly to get the best out of this SUV, but in return you’ll get effortless and efficient driving, along with the practicality and prestige which comes with any XC90. 

Okay, so the T9 doesn’t change the ute game in terms of design, but I reckon it looks pretty sharp. The domed bonnet, the blacked-out grille and the seemingly ubiquitous giant brand lettering all kind of scream tough truck, and the side steps, roof rails and sports bar all help it look the part, too.

There does seem to be two competing approaches to new-ute design at the moment. The first is to borrow from the existing pool of products to create something familiar, though hardly groundbreaking. The other is to rip up the rule book and create something fresh, but potentially polarising.

JAC has gone with the first approach here, with the benefit being nobody is going to be talking negatively how the T9 looks, and the drawback being nobody is going to be talking about it much at all. For mine, I side with no news is good news, and I reckon JAC has made the right call.

Anyway, climb into the JAC T9 Haven and you’ll find a surprisingly premium – in ute terms at least – feeling space, with the leather-wrapped seats and steering wheel, and the hard plastics countered by soft quilted leather-like patches in the door panels and a soft panel in the dash.

The screen looks good, but is old school in its graphics and a bit clunky in its operation, but we're really talking big, bulky ute design here, without anything particularly standout about it.

Cars are like dogs in that a year for them ages them more than one for us. So, this current-generation XC90 which came out in 2015 is getting on in age. Still, the XC90 is a design lesson in how to defy the aging process because the styling even now it appears modern and beautiful. It’s also big, tough, and prestigious looking which is how the flagship SUV in a premium brand should be.

The Thunder Grey paint my test car wore (see the images) is an optional hue, and it suited the battleship size and personality of the XC90. The enormous 22-inch five -spoke Black Diamond Cut alloy wheels were standard and filled up those giant arches nicely.

Maybe it’s the minimalist styling which has kept the XC90 looking cutting edge, because even the interior looks like the inside of a very expensive psychiatrist’s office with those leather seats and the brushed aluminium trim.

The vertical display is still impressive even in 2021, and while fully digital instrument clusters are in everything these days the XC90’s has a prestigious look and matches the rest of the cabin in its colours and fonts.

As for the XC90’s dimensions, it’s 4953mm long, 2008mm wide with the mirrors folded and 1776mm tall to the top of its shark fin antenna.

Remember I said the T9 isn’t trying to out muscle Australia’s dual-cab big guns? That mostly occurs in the workhorse stuff, with the JAC able to tow 3200kg, rather than the 3.5-tonne norm, but its payload is pegged at a competitive 1045kg, and the brand says you can fit an Aussie pallet in its tray.

Speaking of which, the tray arrives with a tub liner and stretches to 1520mm (length) by 1590mm (width), and there are four tie-down points for cargo.

While we're talking about the back, there’s a solid axle with leaf springs at the rear, and a rear diff lock, too.

There’s 210mm of ground clearance and JAC promises a 650mm wading depth. And if you are venturing off road, expect approach and departure angles of 27 and 23 degrees, respectively.

In terms of the backseat, I had more than enough room to get comfy with my 175cm frame, and there are two USB charge points, and air vents with no temp controls.

But I did struggle a bit with the baby seat. The top-tether point is located in the middle of the cabin, which makes fitting a seat in either window seat tricker than it needs to be. There are ISOFIX connections in the window seats, too.

Clever interior packaging means the XC90 Recharge is more practical than many large SUVs. There are flashes of utilitarian brilliance everywhere from the children’s booster seat which pops out of the centre of the second row (see the images) to the way the XC90 can crouch down like an elephant to make it easier to load stuff into the boot.

The XC90 Recharge is a seven-seater, and like all SUVs with third rows those seats in the very back only offer enough room for kids. The second row is spacious even for me at 191cm tall with plenty of leg- and headroom. Up front as you’d expect has good head-, elbow- and shoulder room.

Cabin storage is good with two cup holders in each row (the third also has containers under the armrests) and there are large door pockets, a decent sized centre console box and a net pocket in the front passenger footwell.

The cargo capacity with all seats being used is 291 litres and with the third row folded flat you’ll have 651 litres of boot space.

Storage for the charging cable could be better. The cable comes in a stylish canvas bag that sits in the boot, but other plug-in hybrids I’ve driven do a better job of providing a storage box for the cable that’s out of the way of your regular cargo.  

The gesture control tailgate works with a foot swish under the rear of the car and the proximity key means you can lock and unlock the vehicle by touching the door handle.

The cargo area is filled with hooks for bags and a lift-up divider to hold items in place.

Four-zone climate control, four USB ports (two in the front and two in the second row) dark tinted rear windows and sun blinds top off what is a very practical, family SUV.

My family is small – there’s just three of us – and so the XC90 was more than what we needed. That said, we found a way to fill it with holiday gear, shopping, even a mini trampoline.

The XC90 Recharge lists for $114,990 making it the most expensive grade in the XC90 range.

Still, the value is excellent considering the number of features which come standard.

The 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster standard, so is the nine-inch vertical centre display for media and climate control, there’s also sat nav, a Bowers and Wilkins 19-speaker stereo, wireless phone-charging, four-zone climate control, power-adjustable front seats, proximity key with auto tailgate and LED headlights.

My test car was fitted with options such as the Nappa Leather perforated and ventilated seats in Charcoal ($2950), the Climate pack which adds heated rear seats and a heated steering wheel ($600), power folding headrests in the rear ($275) and Thunder Grey metallic paint ($1900).

Even at a grand total (before on-road costs) of $120,715 I think this is still good value.

The JAC T9 is powered by a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine, producing 120kW and 410Nm, which is fed through an eight-speed automatic and delivered to the tyres in either 2WD, 4WD High or 4WD Low.

And if you’re thinking those numbers don’t sound overly exciting, you’re right.

The turbocharger helps get things moving eventually, but when you first plant your foot in this two-tonne-plus truck, not much of anything happens. And we haven’t towed or carried anything yet.

The XC90 Recharge (Volvo calls it this, so for simplicity let's do it, too) is an all-wheel drive SUV with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder supercharged and turbo-charged engine, producing 246kW and 440Nm, plus an electric motor which adds 65kW and 240Nm.

Shifting gears is an eight-speed automatic and acceleration is rapid at 5.5 seconds for the 0-100km/h sprint.

All XC90s have a 2400kg braked towing capacity.

The 11.6kWh lithium ion battery is located under the floor in a tunnel which runs down the centre of the car covered by the centre console and hump in the footwell of the second row.

If you didn’t realise, this is the type of hybrid you need to plug into a power source to charge the batteries. A power point is fine but a wall unit is faster.  If you don’t plug in, the battery will only get tiny whiff of charge from the regenerative braking and that won’t be enough to put a tiny dent in your fuel consumption.

JAC is claiming 7.6L/100km for combined fuel consumption, but our figures have been more like 10 litres.

There’s a 76-litre tank under there, which at today’s money means about a $150 to fill up, and using JAC’s figures, a full tank should carry you 1000km.

Volvo says that after a combination of urban and open roads the XC 90 Recharge should use 2.1L/100km. That’s incredible - we’re talking about a five-metre long, 2.2-tonne, seven-seat SUV here.

In my testing the fuel economy varied greatly depending on how and where I drove the XC90.

There was a week where I only drove up to 15km a day doing the day care drop-offs, the shopping, popping into work in the CBD, but all within 10km of my home. With 35km of electric range I found that I only had to charge the XC90 every second day to keep it topped up to full and, according to the trip computer, after 55km of travel I was using 1.9L/100km.

I recharged using the outdoor power point in my driveway and using this method would take just less than five hours to fully charge the battery from empty. A wall unit or fast charger will top the battery up much quicker.

The charging cable is long at more than 3m, and the flap on the XC90 is located on the front left wheel guard.

If you don’t have a way of charging the XC90 regularly then fuel consumption will go up, obviously.

This happened when our family took a break down the coast and the holiday house we stayed at didn’t have a power point within reach. So, while we had been charging the car regularly in the week beforehand with a few long trips thrown in on motorways, for the four days we were away I didn’t plug it in at all.

After 598.4km I filled it back to full at the petrol pump with 46.13 litres of premium unleaded. That comes to 7.7L/100km, which is still great fuel economy given that the last 200km would have been without charging.

The lesson is the XC90 Recharge is most fuel efficient on short suburban and city trips with daily or every second-day charging.  

A larger capacity battery would add more range and make this plug-in hybrid SUV better suited to people who live further out of the city and do more motorway miles.

First, a caveat – we didn't put the T9 through its paces off-road, with a full tray, or with a load in tow, so you'll have to consider this a more urban, lifestyle review. We will put it through the tough stuff in time, so watch this space.

In the meantime, I actually found the T9 fairly easy to live, and fairly car-like in the way it goes about its business.

Yes, it's got that unladen jostle and bounce common to most utes, but it's pretty easy to drive, easy to steer and easy to park, helped by the bird's-eye view camera, which makes it simple to see where the ute's edges are in tighter parks.

But there are some downsides. For one, it feels as though the turbo is doing a huge amount of heavy lifting in the T9. Plant your foot, and almost nothing happens for a moment or two, before all the power arrives in a big lump, sometimes setting the tyres squealing if you're going around a corner.

There is turbo lag, but this feels like it is taking a turbo holiday before the power finally turns up, and it does make the overall drive experience a little jarring and unrefined.

Issue number two is the safety squawking, but more on that in a second.

We put more than 700km on the clock of the XC90 Recharge during the three weeks it stayed with my family, covering a lot of motorway miles, country roads and a stack of urban usage, too.

Now without sounding like one of the haters who hated on me the last time I test-drove a Volvo hybrid, you will need to charge the XC90 Recharge all the time if you want to get not only the best fuel economy, but also the best performance from the SUV, too.

There’s the extra oomph from the motor, when you have enough charge in the ‘tank’ but also the serene and smooth pleasure of driving in electric mode on city and urban trips.

That tranquil electric driving experience feels kind of at odds with a large SUV at first, but having now tested a few big family plug-in hybrids and EVs I can tell you it’s a more enjoyable one.

Movement is not only smooth, but the electric grunt provides a feeling of control with an instant response which I found reassuring in traffic and at intersections.

The transition from electric motor to petrol engine is almost seamless. Volvo and Toyota are only a couple of the few brands which seemed to have achieved this.

The XC90 is large and that presented a challenge when trying to pilot it into my narrow driveaway and in car parks, but light, accurate steering and excellent visibility with large windows and cameras galore helped there.

The auto parking feature works well even on the higgledy-piggledy streets in my neighbourhood.

Topping off an effortless driving experience is air suspension which provides a cushioned and composed ride, with great body control all while wearing those 22-inch wheels and low-profile rubber.

Volvo has for decades been a pioneer of safety systems to such an extreme that people used to make fun of the brand for being overly cautious. Well, take it from this helicopter parent: there’s no such thing as being overly cautious! Besides, these days all car brands are striving to offer advanced safety systems which the XC90 has had for years. Yep, safety is cool now. Which makes Volvo the Kanye of car brands.

Coming standard on the XC90 Recharge is AEB which works at city speeds to brake for pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and even large animals.

There’s also lane keeping assistance, blind spot warning, cross traffic alert with braking (front and rear).

Steering support provides assistance during at evasive manoeuvre at speeds between 50 and 100km/h.

Curtain airbags cover all three rows and for child seats there are two ISOFIX mounts and three top tether anchor points in the second row. Note, there are no mounts or points for child seats in the third row.

A space-saver spare is under the boot floor.

The XC90 was given the maximum five-star ANCAP rating when it tested in 2015.  

JAC offers a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, with 24/7 roadside assist and the promise of a like-for-like loan vehicle if yours is off the road for a warranty repair.

Servicing is required every 12 months or 15,000km (whichever comes first), and the capped-price servicing program averages out to around $438 per year.

The XC90 is covered by a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty. Two service plans are offered: three years for $1500 and five years for $2500.