CHECKING OUT THE EARLY NINETIES (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 103

The EX90 was the large full-battery EV Crossover that back in 2022 took Volvo into a new era. As the company put it at this car's launch, 'it's a statement for where we are - and where we're going', combining the brand's own engineering advances with 'the best technology from the world's best technologists'. This SUV was also one of the few large super-luxury EVs to be able to seat seven. It was an ambitious statement of intent from the Sino-Swedish brand but had its fair share of issues in this initial 2022-2025-era 400V form, so used customers will have to choose carefully.

Modelsword count: 12

5dr SUV (EV) - Ultra - Twin Motor / Twin Motor Performance

Historyword count: 272

What does the future really look like for large luxury cars? Various brands have told us, but none of them approached that future quite like Volvo, the company proudly styling itself as 'a pioneer in the protection of people and planet'. A claim that was embodied most clearly in this, it's very first EV to sit on a dedicated electric platform, the EX90, launched in 2022. This was originally intended to be the replacement for the XC90 large SUV model line that saved Volvo at the turn-of-the-century, though slow EV market take-up meant that this combustion model continued on after the launch of the EX90. The future for flagship Volvos though, the brand told us back in 2022, lay with EVs produced off the parent Geely Group's advanced SPA2 architecture, a platform that at the time was already being used by the EX90's close cousin, the Polestar 3, which shared the same drive system and much else. The EX90 differed from that car though, by its provision of three seating rows. And in its standard (rather than optional) inclusion of the so-called 'Lidar' package of sensors and cameras that Volvo claimed would deliver a whole new era of safety and pave the way to a safer solution for fully autonomous driving. The car was initially offered with an older-tech 400V electrical infrastructure and was built at the company's US plant in Charleston - and at Chengdu in China too, with both plants rated carbon neutral. In mid-2025, new battery tech, more power and an 800V faster-charging electrical infrastructure was introduced, but it's the early 2022-2025-era 400V EX90 models we look at here.

What You Getword count: 304

As you might expect, the EX90 sought to take established Volvo EV styling cues and apply them to a car significantly larger and more sophisticated. Much was borrowed from the 'Concept Recharge' study that the brand had showed in 2021, with elements of Range Rover in the upright rear lights. At 5,037mm long, the EX90's not far off the size of one of those, a fraction longer, wider and lower than the combustion XC90. A prominent 'Lidar sensor' sits on the leading edge of the roof, looking like an off-duty taxi light but actually housing a bewildering array of cameras and sensors. Up-front at the wheel, minimalism takes over. Just about all the switchgear was replaced by a Tesla-like 14.5-inch central portrait touchscreen. It runs at two and a half times the speed of the one in the XC90 and has all the major controls along its bottom bar. Materials used mirror Volvo's usual Scandinavian vibe, with jewel-like detailing and a 3D rotary controller sitting almost alone on the lower centre console. There's no conventional instrument binnacle - just a letterbox-shaped digital screen: and the lever-style gear selector is mounted on the steering column. Much of the interior functionality is based around the owner's profile. Once that's been set up, your EX90 will know in advance things like your preferred temperature and control settings - and will greet you with a light sequence as you approach. Unlike its close cousin the Polestar 3, this Volvo is a seven-seater - a proper one nearly big enough for adults in the third row (unlike Tesla's rival Model X). The middle row bench does all the usual slidey-foldy things. And there's a reasonably-sized 655-litre boot, provided you can fold the third row seating. If you can't, there's 310-litres of space on offer: it's 1,915-litres with everything folded.

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