Is the electric Volvo EX90 a better family SUV than the original XC90?

Could either of them see themselves owning an EX90? Lex is unconvinced: “If I had two kids maybe, but it’s just not big enough for my three.” Jenn shuttles her three kids around in a white Tesla Model Y, and admits that “is cramped in the back, your head’s all cranked over. I nearly switched to a Rivian SUV last year, but I love this. I think it would be perfect – if it had more cupholders – and the white seats look lovely now, but I couldn’t have them.”

Photography: Harry Rudd

The Soccer Moms have spoken. This tribe is global. Sure, it has different names in other countries, but the target audience is precisely the same. Affluent middle class families with kids who do clubs and sports, mums (and it does tend to be mums) on the runaround after them. The safe, capacious, family focused Volvo XC90 was long their north star. The EX90 is unlikely to get such an easy ride.

It was a taxi driver who put me straight on this when I told him I’d come over to California to drive a new all-electric version of the Volvo XC90, “Oh, the Soccer Mom car? Y’know Volvo has some work to do, everyone out here drives a white Tesla now". He’s not wrong. Trying to find Jenn’s Model Y in the parking lot is like trying to spot a snowflake in a blizzard.

The EX90 sits well in Southern California. There’s a hint of Tesla’s bland futurism in its clean, simple lines and faceless front end. If we were being kind we could say Volvo has applied the same reductive design treatment as Range Rover, to similarly successful effect. It’s recognisably an XC90, and yet obviously electric as well.

Volvo is hedging its bets on this. The pushback against electric means a facelifted XC90 has been revealed, but don’t think that’s anything like as modern as this. The EX90 is built on the SPA2 platform, shared only with the Polestar 3, so it’s not a repurposed Chinese Geely underneath, nor a Swedish take on a Lotus Eletre, and has nothing in common with the hybrid XC90.

This one is the flagship Twin Motor Performance Ultra that attracted all the derision for costing over a hundred grand. It should be the only one that does. This one has 510bhp, 25 speakers, soft close doors, an electric steering column and 22s. You can knock £4,300 off if you’re happy with 402bhp and in due course there will be single motor versions and lower trim levels, hopefully taking the EX90 closer to a £75k start.

Had you spotted the taxi sign on the roof yet? It’s not a design nod to the fact this will inevitably be mum and dad’s runaround service, but the LiDAR, able to pick out small objects in the road hundreds of metres away, night or day. It’s part of a vast array of sensors that allows Volvo to claim this is the safest car it has ever made. More importantly for most of us, the systems seem pretty intelligent, they only intruded when they needed to (apologies, car I nearly side-swiped while joining the freeway) and there were comparatively few irritating bongs, squeaks and whistles. Not something that can be said of the Kia EV9 that is probably this car’s closest rival.

Set against these sensors is your need for them. Volvo has mimicked Tesla – and let’s face it, pretty much everyone else – by burying everything in the central touchscreen. Up to and including the heating, boot opener and both side mirror and steering wheel adjustment. Two switches operate all four windows (infuriating) and your phone is the car’s key. There’s a backup hotel room key card if your phone battery goes flat. And you never lose those, do you?

The operating system is Android, the screen is fast, lovely to look at and logical to operate. But it’s still a touchscreen, so demands your attention when a button or switch can largely be operated by intuition. Reducing clutter has resulted in a very attractive cabin with an effortlessly chic Scandi vibe. The materials are tactile, the design laid back yet smart. The quality is superb, it feels worth the (considerable) money. The seats are heavenly and that’s not leather, but Nordico, a synthetic/partially recycled material. Wool upholstery is an option. Yeah, I’m sure the mashed banana will come out of that a treat.

The EX90 melds ambience and practicality better than any other family car. It’s one of those cars – and they’re vanishingly rare these days – that, as Lex realised, is bigger inside than it looks outside. The packaging is superb, the operation easy. A flat floor and foot space under the front chairs helps ensure excellent legroom. Tilting and sliding the middle row is a one-hand operation. So too folding them altogether. There’s a huge compartment under the boot floor, seats six and seven fold away electrically. Even with them up there’s 310 litres of load space.

That makes the EX90, to use the local parlance, a proper ‘grocery getter’. Lex and Jenn also found the handy graphic in the tailgate that shows exactly what can be fitted where. And it’s masses, up to 1,915 litres. You can even fold the front passenger seat. In Europe at least, I can’t think of anything you’d want to be seen driving that takes practicality as seriously as this.

Because that’s crucial here isn’t it? No image concerns? Have a VW T7 Multivan and crack on. But that’s not most people. Spend this much money and you want a car to be proud of, that makes a statement about you. The XC90? That’s become a bit worthy over the years. This is fresher, bolder, more upmarket. Takes the fight to everyone from Tesla to Land Rover.

I head up into the hills around San Mateo Peak. No one is going to be punting an EX90 through twisties for larks. But it’s a pleasure to drive, more wieldy than you might expect for its size and weight, but mainly accurate yet undemanding. It does exactly as you bid, is well mannered and it’s only when the surface completely deteriorates that the air suspension struggles and you detect the weight involved.

Up to that point, the ride is impressive: soft, yet well controlled. Sure, you can stiffen it up (once you’ve battled the menus), but don’t bother. Instead, just thumb Performance mode on the home screen, which sharpens the throttle and engages the mechanical rear diff, making the EX90 a bit more engaged and active through corners. And while it may not deliver full house Tesla thrust, its surging pace is more than capable of shifting the 2,787kg bulk weight.

It’s the smoothness and silence you’re here for though and I’m not sure anyone does it better. The drive motors are entirely unobtrusive unless max power is requested, and they’re matched by one of the most insulated cabins I’ve come across. So little noise or vibration comes through, even from the suspension, that wafting along Interstates is effortless, no sense of exertion at all. And if you lift off, on it sails, momentum virtually undisturbed.

It actually gets more stressful if you engage the drive assist systems – the steering’s a little snatchy – so do it yourself. This is waft-o-matic cruising with Range Rover levels of comfort, the kind where the driving doesn’t occupy you, so you’ve got more bandwidth to deal with whatever’s going on in the back seats. And if that’s beyond you, just hit the massage seats and let the 25 Bowers & Wilkins speakers drown them out.

Laguna Beach has a pocket of narrow European streets. The EX90 is at home here. It’s a big car sure, 5,037mm long and 2,039mm wide with the mirrors folded in. The urban struggle is eased by two main things: the excellent all-round visibility and a driving position that sits you exactly where you need to be, and the low speed throttle control which makes it so easy to crawl around smoothly. Decent turning circle, too. We averaged 2.8mpkWh in warm daily driving – bang on 300 miles of range for the 107kWh battery, against a 374-mile WLTP claim. In the UK? You’re looking at 250–280 miles. Enough. Just be wary come ski holiday time.

The EX90 is a blend of Volvo mentality and Tesla mindset

It’s a way more cultured car than we’re used to from Volvo, which has tended to produce thoughtful design but then mated it with cumbersome, brittle dynamics. This is as sophisticated to drive as it is to look at. Even the screens don’t jar too much. It’s been designed with a very clear idea of exactly what it should be and how it should perform. Compare that with just about every other electric SUV: Audi’s Q8 e-tron, the Polestar 3, BMW iX and especially Mercedes’ EQE SUV are all premium SUVs looking for a role. This one understands exactly what it’s for.

I’m not sure any of those figured prominently in Volvo’s thoughts during development. The EX90 is a blend of Volvo mentality and Tesla mindset. It feels squarely aimed at Model X and Y owners, such as Soccer Mom Jenn. If word gets around the soccer pitches of Orange County that the EX90 is the car to have, expect a European comeback. Just don’t go expecting them to call it football.