Electric SUVs are a big trend right now, but it’s probably not what you think. It’s not about extended range. It’s not about more advanced battery architectures, super fast charging, or NACS plugs. No, the real trend for electric SUVs is late. Porsche’s electric Macan took ages to get into production, and its sibling, the Audi Q6 E-Tron, was also delayed by a few months.
The same fate befell Volvo’s EX90. Originally scheduled for release in 2023, that car and its sibling, the Polestar 3, have only just started rolling out of Volvo’s manufacturing plant near Charleston, South Carolina. Volvo has finally let me get behind the wheel of a prototype for a test drive to see if it’s worth the wait.
Was it? Yes and no, but I’m happy to say that in most cases it was.
Let’s start with what kind of car it is: As the name suggests, the EX90 is like a battery-powered version of the XC90 SUV, the largest in the brand’s lineup. Like the XC90, the EX90 is a three-row SUV that seats six or seven depending on the configuration, with a large, upright stance, and of course, more safety features than we can count.
But Volvo didn’t just strip an XC90 and slap a giant battery pack where the engine, exhaust, and fuel tank used to be. This is a purpose-built EV platform, an all-new one designed to run on electricity from the start. It’s powered by a 111-kilowatt-hour battery pack (107 kWh of usable capacity), two electric motors, one at the rear and one at the front, and all-wheel drive.
Volvo
Whether you choose the base model, the $79,995 Plus, or the more luxurious $84,345 Ultra trim, you get the same dual-motor configuration, good for 402 horsepower and 568 ft-lbs of torque. And if that’s not enough, for an extra $5,000 you can get the Twin Motor Performance option, which will give you up to 510 horsepower and 671 lb-ft of torque. Both versions are rated for a range of up to 310 miles in EPA tests, depending on the options you choose.
But interestingly, the two models have the exact same motor and other associated hardware. So what do you get for the extra $5,000? A different set of software and a little white badge on the back that says “TWIN PERFORMANCE.” Welcome to the future.
interior
At 6 feet tall, I could barely fit in the third row; there was simply nowhere for my feet or knees. The second row was much more comfortable with plenty of headroom, but it still wasn’t spacious and didn’t offer the same amount of legroom as the second row of the BMW iX or Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Volvo
Thankfully, I spent most of my time in the front seats, which are great. Volvo offers two interior fabrics: Dawn Quilted Nordico, which feels like leather, and Tailored Wool Blend, which feels like a premium woven fabric. My favorite is by far the latter. These seats have a wide range of adjustments and a surprisingly comprehensive massage function. The only thing they’re missing is ventilation, which is a bit of a shame.
The rest of the interior is very unadorned and clean – the white trim over the charcoal fabric in the car I drove is nice, as is the raised grain of the wooden dashboard insert, only slightly disappointing with the unfortunate strip of chrome running around it.
But the highlight of the dash is the centrally placed, vertically oriented 14.5-inch touchscreen that provides access to the Android Automotive system that controls the entire user interface, including the 9.0-inch gauge cluster behind the steering wheel and the projected head-up display.
Volvo’s interface here is similar to the one they launched about five years ago, but it’s much more comprehensive and responsive than before. Google Maps running natively is a great experience, and you can also do things like adjust vehicle settings by voice using the Google Assistant. Inevitably, the Gemini integration should make it even more powerful.
Android Automotive also gives you access to a host of media apps, including Tidal, which offers Dolby Atmos streaming, and for the first time, Volvo has fitted out a sound system that can take advantage of this: a new Bowers & Wilkins system with a whopping 25 speakers fills the cabin with rich, crisp sound. It’s available as part of the Ultra trim, and is almost worth the upgrade cost alone from the base EX90.
Driving time
The EX90 I drove was fitted with the company’s largest wheels, at 22 inches, and was shod with sticky European summer tires rather than the more modest all-season tires that come on the EX90 in the U.S. Despite these two factors, the EX90 offers a great ride.
It was smooth, quiet and comfortable over every separation joint on the highway and the few bits of asphalt I found. The slight wind noise I could hear at highway speeds betrayed the fact that I was moving in space and time, as well as the latter. All of this comes together to create an even better soundscape for each of the 25 speakers.
Volvo
The suspension is tuned for flexibility, and the EX90 does have a tendency to float a little when hitting larger bumps and such, but despite this, it held up well on tight, twisty canyon roads – not sharp or necessarily sporty, but really fun.
It turns in nicely for a tall car, with minimal roll, thanks to a big battery pack mounted under the floor, and accelerates well — perhaps too much, in fact — and the throttle pedal is a little sharp, which may turn weak-stomach back-seat passengers green. The white interior is nice, but that’s another reason to avoid it.
The one-pedal driving mode is similarly very sharp, bringing the EX90 to a complete halt in no time. If you don’t like this, you can disable it; when turned off, the EX90 will coast. There’s also a third option: Auto. In this mode, the car will coast most of the time, but if there’s a car ahead, it will apply regeneration more aggressively to maintain distance.
This is just one part of the car’s advanced driving system, and its performance was a bit erratic.
Large Sensor
A very sleek and sophisticated looking, yet understated SUV, the EX90’s most interesting styling cue is the sensor pod mounted above the windscreen. Inside is a Luminar Lidar pod that scans the road ahead and generates a 3D point map of any obstacles – or at least, it does.
For now, this little trinket on the roof is just decorative, but Volvo has announced that next year it will light up the sensor and start collecting data via software updates. In the future, the sensor will be better integrated with the car’s adaptive safety systems, essentially acting as another reference point to augment the other sensors.
Volvo
The features included are largely the same as Volvo’s current models. The Pilot Assist system offers comprehensive active lane-keeping assistance, keeping the car centered in its lane. Volvo has also added an automatic lane change function, but it must be manually activated by pressing the turn lever all the way down. It’s adequate, but it’s clearly inferior to the hands-off systems from Ford, General Motors, and BMW. We also ran into an issue while driving, where the lane-centering system would not engage on secondary roads.
There were other issues, too. Although the car uses UWB (ultra-wideband) connectivity to your smartphone for keyless operation, our car had a hard time detecting our phone, forcing us to engage for a few annoying minutes every time we exited the car. It also had a hard time detecting that I had my hands on the wheel, at one point even disabling the active steering system because it thought I wasn’t paying attention (which I was). Finally, the entire active safety suite experienced errors twice, once requiring a technician to fix it on a laptop.
summary
Given the delayed launch of this machine, I have to admit I was hoping for a more refined experience, but let’s not blame the EX90 for that: Volvo’s engineers are confident they’ll be able to iron out these issues before the SUV hits dealerships, which Volvo says will happen by the end of the year.
It’s a shame the active safety suite lags behind the competition, but Volvo must have bigger plans for the EX90 — and it’s not just for looks that the company has fitted a LiDAR sensor to the roof. These things are expensive.
Now, on to pricing: Again, the EX90 starts at $79,995 for the dual-motor version with a range of up to 310 miles, which puts it in the same price range as two other premium three-row SUVs, the Rivian R1S and the Tesla Model X. However, the upcoming Polestar 3, which is built on the same platform but lacks the lidar sensor on the roof and a third row of seats in the back, starts $5,000 less.
Is the Volvo worth the extra cost? We’ll have to wait and see for ourselves before we drive Volvo’s corporate model.
Update, Sept. 3, 2024 at 6:01 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to remove two paragraphs that inaccurately described the EX90’s dimensions due to a conversion error.
