Telephone in pocket, I step into the sleek-looking Volvo EX90 EV, and as I method this three-row SUV the motive force door unlocks, the seat motors to the right place and the mirrors and steering wheel discover their prescribed candy spots. Favorites and local weather settings recalibrate.
OK, full confession: That’s the way it’s imagined to work. The truth, I need to confess, is that my first time moving into the EX90 I spent round 10 minutes navigating a labyrinth of various display screen settings. Every time my drive accomplice and I modified place, we needed to undergo the identical factor. Very similar to Tesla, Volvo has fully purged all of those controls, and so they’re not fingertip controls obtainable at any time; you may’t even tweak them once you’re at a stoplight in Drive.
Why? Effectively, design minimalism, after all. Whereas the EX90 has a profile that’s predictably Volvo, boxy and clear on the skin, minimalist verging on austere on the within—fashionably so—with all of the anticipated Volvo cues, from Thor’s hammer lights to chiseled taillights, pre-loaded however overtly bit-mapped right here. At a look, it merely seems like an evolution of Volvo for the electrified age and doesn’t exit on a limb.
The 14.5-inch touchscreen system is the core of the EX90’s inside, and from a primary pattern it’s one of many higher ones designed on the Google Android Automotive OS that’s beginning to give numerous infotainment techniques an analogous look if not format. Volvo has given its display screen a special construction, although, locking climate-control settings and fast navigation to the house display screen, apps, and settings on the backside of the display screen. With widgets and contextual icons simply above that, the overwhelming majority of the format is devoted to navigation—though it’s also possible to add it to the 9.0-inch gauge cluster.
Those that actually don’t like the best way Tesla has determined to maneuver all of the controls to the touchscreen and gone super-minimalist with ancillary controls received’t be delighted by this method. However not like in Tesla automobiles, Volvo offers you that reconfigurable gauge show, a head-up show, and choices to tweak the format of the touchscreen.
Of all of the issues that Tesla leaves to the display screen, Volvo has left us turn-signal and shift stalks, and it has opted to not make transferring climate-control vents a display screen job. I’m completely happy to carry my hand and transfer the vent. Thanks, Volvo, it’s a pleasant contact level.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
Volvo’s first software-defined automobile
Volvo backstops its total story in regards to the South Carolina-made EX90, which arrives at dealerships this fall and has been waylaid by software program points, with particulars about the way it’s a software-defined automobile. Contemplate it a provided that the interface is prone to evolve and add options with a lifetime of auto updates on the best way. Volvo factors to its expertise partnerships with Google, Qualcomm, and Nvidia and suggests the EX90 is the opening salvo for tech and an interface that can filter down by means of the longer term EV lineup. Volvo says it is going to preserve information for navigation and over-the-air updates reside even when clients let their 5G information subscription for apps and streaming lapse; it hasn’t but supplied an thought of how a lot information will price for this new system past an introductory interval.
Getting extra comfy with the tech and with the attitude of a number of hours of driving time, I used to be reminded that Volvo hasn’t forgotten within the EX90 about what it does greatest—making folks really feel comfy, protected, and pampered, with out overtly flaunting it.
Volvo was already transferring upscale when the present XC90 household first got here out, and it feels just like the EX90 continues to maneuver in that path inside. Regardless of the uber-minimalist, virtually austere look to the interface and sprint, the EX90 has a really wealthy, finely textured feel and look all through the cabin—at the least within the prime Extremely variations I drove on the launch occasion, so the jury stays out for extra reasonably priced variations. Entrance seats have extendable thigh bolsters and match a variety of sizes; second-row seats are ample for adults; and sure, you may match a 6-footer within the third row, though it’s laborious to get out and in.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90 efficiency
For 2025, the EX90 is obtainable in two powertrain variants, every in Plus or Extremely trims. Within the Twin Motor Efficiency I drove, the dual-motor system makes 510 hp and 671 lb-ft of torque altogether, and it might speed up to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. Twin Motor variations as a substitute make 402 hp and 568 lb-ft. Each models are everlasting magnet motors, with considerably totally different outputs, however each variations use a disconnect clutch on the rear motor to function the EX90 as a front-wheel-drive automobile throughout cruising or gentle acceleration, whereas the rear motor sometimes works at off-the-line launches. A Efficiency AWD successfully takes the place of a sport mode, because it locks the rear motor on from 19-81 mph, balancing the dynamics in corners. There’s an off-road mode too.
Trying completely at straight-line efficiency, the EX90 is astonishingly quiet, and as fast because the numbers counsel. Volvo purged the cabin of noise and vibration with out resorting to energetic noise cancellation, and the EX90 doesn’t have sound supplementation; it comes all the way down to cleverly chosen bushings, together with fluid-filled mounts for the motor models.
For a model that suggestions the scales at round 6,100 kilos and is the heaviest within the lineup, the EX90 was additionally delightfully nimble—though I can’t converse for the complete lineup fairly but. That’s as a result of the Extremely mannequin consists of an air suspension, in addition to semi-active (multi-mode) dampers, with a alternative between comfortable and agency experience settings, in addition to comfortable and agency settings for steering really feel. I ended up preferring the comfortable setting for each, because the steering centered extra naturally in that setting and the EX90 rode higher within the comfortable setting, with out sacrificing any of the dynamic management when pushed laborious—however I did discover the comfortable setting introduced slightly extra nosedive in laborious stops.
On that matter, I’m under no circumstances a fan of the mushy brake pedal really feel and the restricted vary of regenerative braking choices. Aside from an “auto” setting I didn’t fully get the texture of, you might have a alternative of both turning on an aggressive one-pedal driving mode, or turning regen off fully and coasting in what appears like Impartial. Sitting at a steep incline with my foot on the brake pedal, I might increase or decrease the pedal a pair inches with out figuring out the place the friction level of the brake pads was. Volvo will get the pedal really feel proper within the XC40 Recharge, so this can be an anomaly. And please, for the sake of passengers, let’s hope they provide us a center regen setting.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
A 300-mile vary for EX90 in the actual world?
A 111-kwh battery pack is stocked with nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) lithium-ion cells, and Volvo makes 107 kwh of that obtainable as usable capability. A road-trip fast-charge of 10-80% takes half-hour, in accordance with Volvo, with a connector of 250 kw or larger. Nevertheless it factors out that you simply’ll add solely 5 minutes to the session by utilizing a 150-kw connector. And with its 11-kw onboard charger, count on a full cost in lower than 10 hours on a 48-amp, 240-volt residence charger.
The EX90 has one different very spectacular charging toolset, and it’ll preserve getting higher as equipment and over-the-air updates roll out: bidirectional charging. With a unit obtainable beginning late this 12 months from Volvo accomplice dcbel, EX90 homeowners will have the ability to again up residence energy or maybe, sooner or later, promote energy again to their utility.
Volvo factors to U.S. EPA-cycle vary estimates of 310 miles with the 21-inch wheels, or 300 miles with the 20-inch or 22-inch wheels.
By early indications of this drive, in 80-degree climate, the EX90 will return about that or extra in the actual world. In about 185 miles of driving in Orange County between two totally different automobiles, and together with a variety of visitors and highway circumstances together with high-speed freeway cruising and mountain roads, I noticed almost 2.8 miles per kwh—figuring out to be 300 miles with out occupied with effectivity.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
EX90 security, Pilot Help: Very succesful however conservative
As up-front as Volvo is in transforming the interface, its very appropriately named Pilot Help driver-assistance options are much more conservative. Pilot Help doesn’t use mapped highways in the identical manner, and it and Volvo’s active-safety suite as a substitute consider one thing none of these different automobiles have: lidar. With its Luminar lidar sensor, the EX90 can see pedestrians as much as 250 meters forward, in accordance with Volvo, and it will get an extended, extra correct view of what’s up forward than digicam techniques.
But in comparison with GM’s Tremendous Cruise or Ford’s Blue Cruise—and definitely versus Navigate on Autopilot—Pilot Help takes a conservative method. Order up an automatic lane change and it requires each fingers on the wheel and many time, and you’ll’t take your fingers off the steering wheel and its capacitive sensors for greater than 14 seconds at a time.
It’s dear. The 2025 EX90 begins at $81,290, together with the $1,295 vacation spot payment. Within the Plus you do get an enormous set of luxurious function together with four-zone local weather management, third-row air-con, a power-folding third row, an influence tailgate, a heated steering wheel, and heated first and second-row seats. High-trim Extremely variations just like the one I drove, with the air suspension, therapeutic massage seats, soft-close doorways, and flush door handles, are above that at $85,640 for Twin Motor and $90,640 in Twin Motor Efficiency guise.
That apart, Volvo clearly hasn’t overpassed its model. With the still-extant XC90 it’s helped homeowners really feel comfy, protected, and pampered, with out being an overt assertion of luxurious. The 2025 Volvo EX90 carries all of that ahead and goes boldly into the longer term.
Volvo paid for journey bills in order that we might convey you this firsthand check drive evaluation.
