Volvo EX90 — First Drive – CleanTechnica

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The fully electric Volvo EX90 is perhaps the brand’s most important electric vehicle launch to date. It is being built in South Carolina, with shipments to customers expected to kick off in the 4th quarter of 2024.

Volvo invited CleanTechnica out to The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, California, to drive the new EX90. We spent hours in the vehicle, talking to Volvo’s experts, and picking through every nook and cranny of the car — and boy are we excited to unpack it all for you here.

Overview

The EX90 is a much-needed addition to the surprisingly small number of 7-seat fully electric SUVs available in the US. In line with the refreshed XC90 and its plug-in hybrid, the EX90 enters the class as a top-tier luxury electric vehicle with a starting price point just under $80,000.

Exterior

The Volvo EX90 comes with all the trimmings today’s Volvo is known for. Beautiful Scandinavian design permeates the ethos of the EX90. The exterior carries forward the slimmed down, aero styling we saw on the EX30, just in a larger format. As a 7-seater, the EX90 is on the larger side, but it manages to fit all that cargo and passenger space inside while still looking elegant and sophisticated.

The sleek lines from the nose carry back to the rear of the vehicle, ushering air efficiently around the body with a muted grille popping down in the front. The grille pulls air into the heat exchanger of the vehicle and keeps the vehicle’s batteries, motors, and cabin at their respective ideal temperatures.

Interior

Hopping into the car, the first thing you notice is the impressive amount of detail that went into translating Volvo’s Scandinavian designs into what is essentially a living space on wheels. The front seats are more comfortable than most couches I’ve sat on, with a headrest that, in addition to its embedded speakers, is more comfortable than most pillows I’ve snoozed on.

From the vegan leather to the wood trim, the interior of the EX90 is indulgent and warm. Subtle LED accent lighting warms the cabin at night, even backlighting the wood trim on the dash, which lets the warm textures of the wood play after dark.

Complementing the finishes is perhaps the most luxe quality of the EX90: silence. The silence in the EX90 cabin is overwhelming. It’s like stepping into a spa or onto a sound stage where the absence of noise is pervasive. Combined with Volvo’s 25-speaker sound system, it can be anything from a zen cabin on wheels to a full blown rock concert for two.

The Drive

Shifting into drive and letting the EX90 run, the silence paired with Volvo’s dual-motor drivetrain transforms a weekend drive through the canyon into something much more like flying. It’s unique and unlike anything we’ve seen in other EVs.

The dual-motor powertrain won’t knock your socks off, but as a 7-seat build, we wouldn’t expect it to. Having said that, it’s more than enough to have fun blasting through your local canyons on the way to a winery or just to see what’s over the river and through the hills.

Suspension

After being blown away by the EX30 in both power and suspension in such an affordable vehicle, the EX90 was a bit underwhelming in both departments. The power is fine, but it’s not anything to write home about, which is surprising for a car with more than 500 horsepower and 910 Nm of torque. As we pushed the car to its limits, some road noise from the top trim 22″ tires crept into the cabin, which was disappointing. The noise wasn’t persistent, but the cabin would be much quieter — and more comfortable, for that matter — on a set of smaller-diameter rims and tires.

The suspension is clearly well tuned, but still allows the cabin to pitch and sway more than we’re used to in modern EVs. When we laid into the accelerator in the canyons, it clearly wasn’t happy — though, it was perfect on city streets and the highway. Speaking of the highway, the silence of the car provides little feedback, so you’ll want to keep an eye on your speed for the first few drives.

The motors are the same in both the performance and the non-performance version of the EX90, with the performance variant getting special tuning to unlock the extra power and torque. It’s a beautiful thing to see companies pushing hard to unlock new ways to simplify the production process and differentiate their products for customers at the same time.

When it comes to range, the EX90 absolutely delivers. Its 111 kWh nominal, 107 kWh usable battery pack supports an EPA range of 300 miles per charge when its kitted out with 20″ and 22″ rims and 310 miles of range with the 21″ rims.

Infotainment

The EX90 is built on Google’s Automotive OS which has clearly been well tuned for this latest implementation. Paired with a responsive screen, it easily handled the navigation along our route and will feel familiar to most new drivers thanks to its shared DNA with Google’s suite of products. Maps is gorgeous and well integrated, as is the addition of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

On our test drive, we used the phone key as our only way to lock and unlock the vehicle. Our phones were locked with a pin so we didn’t get the full experience, and many drivers at the event were temporarily locked out by the phone key failing to connect. Volvo’s team shared that this was because the software isn’t fully baked yet, and it’s something we’ll be checking in on when the production vehicle and software are released. Production vehicles will also have a key fob and key card as backups and we always recommend keeping the keycard on your person just in case.

Safety

Volvo is known for its safety, and that ethos has expanded to the electric powertrain as well. The battery in the EX90 has an all new safety cage built around it to protect it from external forces. In addition to keeping the battery safe, it serves as a structural component of the car, simplifying the overall design of the vehicle at the same time.

Overall

Volvo has really built an impressive vehicle in the EX90. It’s 7-seat interior is luxurious and functional, with some of the best infotainment software we’ve seen from a legacy automaker. Being built in South Carolina and at a starting price of just under $80,000 means it should qualify for the federal tax incentive, which is huge for families looking for one of the safest 7-seat EVs out there.

At this price, it’s right up there with the Kia EV9 in terms of value for dollar in the family-sized zero-emission vehicle space. In our book, the Volvo EX90 wins because of their die-hard focus on safety, top notch interior, beautiful design, and Volvo’s no-compromise quality.

For more information, head over to the Volvo EX90’s digital home.