Volvo EX90 review

The first genuinely convincing premium school run car of the electric era. It’s very good, the EX90, even if the flagship version nudges past £100,000. More affordable versions, likely starting at £75,000, will be along shortly.

OR I COULD JUST HAVE AN XC90 NOW FOR ABOUT £60K?

You could. But the EX90 moves the game on significantly, not just in terms of packaging and driving, but technology and design. That said, Volvo is hedging its bets against the electric backlash felt across Europe and beyond: a facelifted XC90 will be along in a few months.

The EX90 is built on an updated, electric-only version of the SPA platform that underpins the XC90. The only other car currently using it is the Polestar 3, so this is not a Geely platform found underneath a host of Chinese SUVs or a Lotus Eletre with a Swedish makeover. Although built in China as well, all European and American EX90s will come from Volvo’s plant in Charleston, South Carolina.

PRACTICALITY MATTERS HERE, RIGHT?

It is the be all and end all of this car. And boy is it better thought out and more user-friendly than any other electric family SUV out there. Audi’s Q8, BMW’s iX and Merc’s EQE SUV are all premium SUVs looking for a role. This one understands exactly what it’s for.

OK, it’s not much more imaginative inside than an XC90, but the skateboard battery (a giant 111kWh, 107kWh usable) allows for a flat floor across the second row and decent footspace in the rear row as well. And there’s a huge well under the boot floor. All UK cars will have seven seats. In some markets the middle row can be switched for a pair of captain’s chairs.

Outwardly it’s a big car – getting on for 100mm longer than an XC90 at 5037mm long and a similar amount wider too. But it doesn’t look it. In part this might be because we were driving it in America, but also because Volvo has successfully applied the same ‘reductive’ design philosophy that Range Rover made famous. It looks like an XC90, but simpler, cleaner. Definitely a Volvo, just maybe a bit faceless at the front.

WHY’S IT GOT A TAXI SIGN ON THE ROOF?

Er, that’s the Lidar, rather than a nod to the fact this will inevitably be Mum and Dad’s runaround service. It certainly doesn’t improve the EX90's lines, but it does boost safety. And Volvo likes safety. The claim is that this is the safest Volvo ever, able to build a 360-degree picture of the world around the car, with Lidar able to pick out small objects in the road hundreds of metres away, night or day.

There’s also an interior radar to prevent children or pets being left inside by mistake (we’ve all been there) and all the driver monitoring and assistance systems you’d expect. With comparatively few irritating bongs, squeaks and whistles if our experience was anything to go by.  

TALK TO ME ABOUT CONNECTIVITY.

I know what you’re getting at, and it’s not the kind of connectivity that links car to driver, but rather car and cloud. Rather than developing software itself, Volvo was early to link up with Google so Android software runs the 14.5in central screen. The touchscreen itself 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. How Volvo squares this against safety was a question raised when the EX30 was launched last year.

The screen here is much better, but the integration is deeper. Want to adjust the steering wheel? You’re into the screen. Same goes for the side mirrors, opening the boot, using the heating, fine-tuning your seat…

And that’s not the end of it. You can control the car via Google from home to unlock it or set the cabin temperature. Your smartphone is the key. Yes, really. And it’s worth pointing out that the pre-production cars we drove on the launch had a few glitches in this area, sometimes refusing to recognise the phone or lock the car. There’s also 5G – but as we’ve found with Volvos in the past, that’s no help when there’s no phone signal and everything is off-line. Including the sat nav.

SWEETEN THE PILL FOR ME. IS THERE ANYTHING TO HELP THE DRIVER OUT?

Bi-directional charging could be useful, and the charging itself is fast considering this is built on 400V, rather than 800V, architecture. Able to charge at up to 250kW, a 10-80 per cent charge takes 30 mins.

The EX90 supports Apple CarPlay as well as Android Auto – just as well or Volvo could have lost 50 per cent of its sales right there. And there’s over 50kg of recycled material around the car, most notably the standard Nordico ‘leather’ trim, which is made from secondhand plastic and sustainable pine oil.

TIME FOR THE DREADED QUESTION OF RANGE…

Slightly long winded answer. At launch the EX90 has a choice of two power outputs, either 510bhp or 402bhp. The former is a second quicker to 62mph at 4.9secs. Top speed in both is a limited 112mph. The former was the only one available to drive, and comes with a whopping 670lb ft of torque. It’s swift, but would obviously be a lot faster if it didn’t weigh 2,787kg.

Claimed range is 374 miles for both versions. In sunny, warm California we were reliably getting over 300 miles, but we weren’t fully loaded. Heading off on a ski holiday? You’ll be looking at more like 250. And that’s before you’ve stuck a roofbox on. 

HOW DOES IT DRIVE?

Very well indeed. Volvo is rightfully proud of how quiet a cruiser it is. How smooth, too. More on this in the Driving tab obviously, but small things impress: the throttle sensitivity and control at low speeds, the accurate steering, the light, easy controls, the momentum when you lift-off. It’s only when the road gets rough that you start to become aware of the weight.

There’s driving assist with lane keep and radar cruise. It’s OK, but the steering inputs are a little jerky despite the Lidar being able to see so far down the road. BMW does it better.

DOES IT FEEL GOOD INSIDE?

It’s got that effortlessly chic Scandi vibe about it. The materials are tactile, the design laid back yet smart. Among rivals, only the BMW iX does it as well or better than this. The quality is superb, it feels worth the (considerable) money. Just don’t get the wool trim if you’re going to be carrying kids. Obvious reasons.  

WHAT RIVALS SHOULD I BE LOOKING AT? 

There simply aren’t many seven-seat family SUVs available yet. As a family hauler this blows Audi’s Q8 e-tron or Merc’s EQE SUV into the weeds (read more on that in the Interior section). The question you need to answer is do you definitely want full electric, because if you don’t a world of hybrids opens up to you, including Volvo’s own XC90 T8.

The car that might be on your lips right now is Kia’s EV9. It’s a whopper, but it’s not as well packaged as the Volvo, not nearly as nice inside and is a heffalump to drive. With many warning bongs. Prices for that range from £65-£77k. In case you’re interested, we tested it against a hybrid XC90 recently.

Although we mentioned other rivals above, the EX90 feels quite specifically aimed at Tesla. From the functionality buried in the touchscreen to the laidback-yet-chic design, this is aimed at Model X and Model Y buyers. Yes, despite the price difference to the latter.

It’s a much better thought through family car than either of those. The boot is genuinely huge, the car spacious throughout with easy to operate seats and clever touches. We took the EX90 to meet some ‘Soccer Moms’ in the US and the main criticism was the size and number of cupholders. Too small and not enough. Apart from that, it was widely admired.

Smooth and silent on the road, it’s a pleasure to drive, more wieldy than you might expect for its size and weight. It’s easy to see out of, undemanding and consumes long journeys with ease and in spectacular comfort. The massage seats are some of the best we’ve ever come across. Irrelevant? Not if you’re a parent. Little luxuries help assuage the squabbling in the back. And in the EX90 little luxuries are everywhere you look.