Volvo ES90 review

It’s Volvo’s luxury saloon, exactly 5m long with a limo-like wheelbase and a reassuring sense of authority. Actually, saloon isn’t quite right. The ES90 sits higher than usual, which challenges the proportions somewhat. It’s more of a… saloon-over.

Rivals include the Audi A6 e-tron, BMW i5 and iX, Mercedes EQE, Porsche Taycan, Lucid Air and the upcoming Polestar 5. Two specifications are available, Plus and Ultra, with prices starting at £69,760 for the former, £79,160 for the latter. That brings desirable additions such as an electrochromic roof, Bowers & Wilkins audio upgrade, and active air suspension.

Didn't it have a taxi-style bump on its forehead at launch?

Yes, about that. That was the lidar, the protruding sensor that was supposed to underpin Volvo’s future-proofed commitment to safety. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for those blessed with the gift of sight), Volvo terminated its contract with supplier Luminar back at the end of 2025, claiming that the US company wasn't able to keep up with demand.

Safety has been a brand USP for Volvo since the early days, of course, and the Swedes were quick to state that "EX90 and ES90 cars meet Volvo Cars’ safety standards and provide a high level of driver support. This is enabled by the cars’ powerful core computing and advanced sensor set – with or without a lidar."

Volvo also says that its ‘driver understanding’ system uses bespoke algorithms to monitor driver attention and step in if support is needed. There’s even full sensor monitoring for the interior, sufficiently alert to detect sub-millimetre movement.

Looks much better now, don’t you think?

Absolutely, the ES90’s supremely Scandi-modernist aesthetic now shines through. It's clean, strongly surfaced, and imposing. We like the ‘Thor’s hammer’ lights that are now whacking a DRL tent peg into the ground, and the smooth-nosed frontal aspect gives away the electric powertrain. You may struggle to spot a through-line from the 264 or 760 to this, but it’s there in terms of sheer heft. Volvo reckons the Bertone-designed 780 coupe from the late Eighties was an influence.

It’s also not without its quirks. It sits unusually high, with a raised H-point, and has a fastback rather than a conventional boot. Volvo’s explanation for this uncharacteristic piece of category busting is to combine the driving position and ground clearance of an SUV with something classically noble.

Note, though, that it’s very aerodynamically efficient, cleaving the air with a drag coefficient of 0.25. The barn door aero of those classic Seventies and Eighties Volvos is a thing of the past. Meanwhile, Volvo says about 63 per cent of the ES90 is made of recycled materials.

Presumably an electric Volvo is a bit more sprightly, too.

Indeed. Three powertrain options are available in two battery sizes. As is the modern way, the ES90 represents an improvement over the EX90 – launched barely a year before – in terms of energy management software and in the hardware. New adapative charging software comes from a company called Breathe Battery Technologies, which Volvo’s venture capital arm recently invested in.

The result is a longer range and more efficiency, with 88kWh or 102kWh usable battery packs available. They’re NMC – lithium-ion with a combination of nickel, manganese and cobalt in their cathode.

Stats, please...

Here’s how the line-up shakes out. The standard Single Motor, rear-wheel drive car is the only one fitted with the smaller battery. That has a projected WLTP range of 411 miles, and makes 328bhp and 354lb ft. Next up is the Twin Motor with all-wheel drive, good for 450bhp, 494lb ft and an eye-catching 426 miles of range. Finally, there’s the Twin Motor Performance version, which ups the ante to 671bhp and 642lb ft.

The rear motor is a permanent magnet one that does the heavy lifting; the front one is asynchronous, magnet-free, and adds extra torque up front when required. There’s a new cooling system, revised inverter and power module, and reduced torque losses, claims Volvo.

The result is, by some margin, the most powerful car in the company’s history. More than anyone really needs, we’d wager, although we’ll have to revisit that because so far we've only driven an ES90 with one motor. Anyway, the 0-62mph times are 6.9 seconds, 5.6s and 4.0s (!) respectively, although top speed across the board is limited to 112mph. Sensible.

Isn’t the speed of charging just as important?

True. Perhaps even more important than the overall range. The ES90 is an improvement on the EX90 here, too, not least because it runs an 800-volt configuration rather than the SUV’s 400-volt one, so it delivers more power and range with the same current.

Hooked up to a 350kW charger, the Twin Motor versions can add 186 miles of range in 10 minutes, or go from 10 per cent SOC to 80 per cent in 22 minutes. All you need now is a charging station that will actually provide that...

Volvo’s third generation electric drivetrain is also bi-directional, so you can use it to power your home or to return energy to the grid. It’s ticking all the currently available boxes.

What about the connectivity?

It's got roughly twice the firepower of the EX90’s set-up – with its dual Nvidia Drive AGX Orin processor capable of 508 trillion operations a second – though that model will soon receive the same upgrade. The ES90’s software definition means that it’s one of those modish cars that will receive regular ‘over-the-air’ updates, so that it’s constantly evolving.

That’s the glass half-full way of looking at it, anyway. A more Eeyore-ish take might be that companies are getting into the habit of launching cars before they’re fully finished. The EX90 had more than a few issues at launch, with a glance at some of the online forums amongst American owners confirming that the first cars were glitchy.

We also know from experience in the related Polestar 3 that the software has problems defining itself, shall we say. That said, our drives in the ES90 have so far been absolutely flawless.

How good an actual car is it?

As with its SUV brother, it’s impressive. You would naturally expect a large and luxurious saloon to ride well and to deliver refinement. The ES90 is exemplary in both regards and must surely be one of the quietest cars we’ve ever tested.

Its steering is supremely light, but the least powerful single motor car – 328bhp – gets along the road sufficiently swiftly to have you questioning the need for more. Its (optional) dual-chamber air suspension gives it an appropriately plush ride quality. It handles pretty well, too, although it’s not as good as the Audi A6 e-tron or BMW i5 in that regard. But who buys a premium EV in search of B-road jollies?

The ES90 follows the EX90 in Volvo’s complete embrace of electrification. While an SUV might be the default choice for the (upper) middle class family these days, there’s something compelling about a well-executed high-end saloon. The ES90 is certainly well conceived, and takes a whole host of the company’s core values and reimagines them for the EV world.

In particular, it pulses with the latest and most relevant tech, and upgrades to its software and processing power should eradicate the problems that have afflicted the EX90. It’s a sublime place to sit and spend time, thoughtfully designed, and though the single motor car is no rocket ship, its refinement and superb manners atone for any palpable lack of drama.