It’s a seven-seat car that comes from a country with one of the lowest fertility rates: it’s a Volvo XC90 and it harks from Sweden. There’s only 1.67 births per 1000 women in Sweden, and considering the amount of darkness and snow, I’m surprised it’s not higher – perhaps all the Swedish guys have cold feet!

Replacement fertility (on a global scale) is around 2.33. This means you need to have 2.33 children to keep the population levels stable, accounting for accidental deaths and people who aren’t capable of multiplying because of gingivitis and/or sexual preference.

So, a conspiracy theorist might postulate that the Swedish government which has (I seem to remember) worried about a declining youth population supporting a growing elderly one, may have incentivised Volvo to make it easy to transport large families around. While China discourages families from having more than one child with fiscal punishment, Volvo is encouraging them. Though, there is certainly some fiscal punishment to be had over the XC70, which is smaller, cheaper, more frugal and better looking. The XC70 only has 5 seats, but it’s quite a bit quicker to 100kph, and manages to drink 0.6l/100km less than the XC90.

China has a burgeoning car industry. Perhaps all it takes for them is to offer a free vasectomy with every Brilliance BS6 purchased. Though, considering the results of the third and fourth crash tests in the video below, accidental mortality might be quite a bit higher than first anticipated.

Check out the third and fourth crash tests in this video. The first two are from Lexus and Fiat and show how it should be done.