Volvo ES90 - long-term review

The ES90 recently found itself participating in an unplanned three-car test. BMW GB released a handful of cars from its heritage collection and invited a few of us to drive them to October’s Bicester Scramble. The E92 M3 GTS is a car I wrote about for TG back in the day, and memories of hammering it across the Grossglockner pass – the highest surfaced mountain road in Austria – remain vivid. There was also a separate mission to the Nürburgring 24 hours. Good times.

Only 138 were ever made, and at £118k new in 2010 the GTS was a pricey proposition. Now it’s a £180-200k car, and the combined allure of its 1,530kg weight, 444bhp (at 8,300rpm!) nat-asp V8 and astonishing steering feel mean it’s a top-tier M car. And that’s saying something.

It’s in my all-time top ten, no question, yet the electric Volvo – the best part of a tonne heavier – can live with it in a straight line, such is the instant smash nature of an EV’s torque delivery. In terms of seamless performance, look no further. And as idiotic as it might sound, given that the M3 GTS was monastic even when new, I couldn’t help looking at its single-disc CD slot and simple dash and realising just how much we expect our cars to do now. Boy, have we been corrupted by technology.

A more relevant comparison can be made with its Polestar cousin, whose range-topping 5 model unquestionably has the motive force to keep up with any M car you care to name. Sure, TG’s ES90 is the single motor car, so we’re clearly not comparing eggs with eggs here. The Polestar 5 Performance has 871bhp and 749lb ft of torque, so it’s aptly named. It also has a chassis with extraordinary integrity: 51,000Nm per degree, which is endurance racing car stiff. But the car moves with an expensively calibrated feel, and magnetic dampers give it exemplary body control.

Anyway, getting back into the Volvo after these two should have been a sobering experience. As it happens, it’s another contemporary EV that’s addressing one of the biggest challenges: delivering real character despite its overtly digital make-up. The Volvo is a lush, lavish spa retreat on wheels. Certainly, my mate Al – whose grandfather helped Sir Alec Issigonis design the original Mini – enjoyed being a passenger in the ES90 rather more than he did in the BMW.