The 2025 Volvo EX90 Is Surprisingly Cool But Still A Work In Progress

The long-awaited Volvo EX90 is supposed to represent the launch of the next major phase of the history of this storied Swedish automotive brand. As the first Volvo built from the ground up as a battery electric vehicle (BEV) it represents where Volvo aimed to be in the next several years. But the EX90 is more than just a BEV, it’s also a software-defined vehicle (SDV), and like most legacy automakers, Volvo has had significant struggles with the SDV transition. Thanks to its difficulties getting a new software platform working reliably, the EX90 is arriving in the market almost a year behind schedule. Series production finally kicked off in Charleston, South Carolina in June and EX90s should be getting to customers in the coming weeks. 

Over the past several weeks, Volvo has been bringing the world’s automotive media to the hot bed of BEV adoption that is southern California to get a first taste of what its designers and engineers have crafted in the EX90 and we were among that group. 

Volvo Car (as distinct from Volvo Group which manufactures trucks, buses and other industrial equipment) has now been under the stewardship of China’s Geely Group for 14 years. That’s been a good stretch for Volvo, as Geely has provided the company with the resources to build all-new vehicle platforms and a modern lineup of engines, something it lacked under its previous Ford ownership.

In fact, in many respects, the relationship between Volvo and Geely could almost be considered a reverse takeover in some respects. Prior to the acquisition, Geely wasn’t exactly a highly regarded automaker. But the parent company has clearly absorbed a lot from Volvo in terms of engineering and design, and that is reflected in Geely’s other brands like Zeekr and Lync&Co. 

First of a New Generation: The SPA2 Platform

The first new product under Geely was the 2015 second-generation XC90 which rode on the then-new Scalable Platform Architecture (SPA). SPA was ultimately used for all of Volvo’s 60 and 90 series models. The SPA vehicles used variants of a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine family that ran on gasoline or diesel, with turbochargers, superchargers, 48V mild-hybrid and plug-in-hybrid flavors. 

The EX90 again debuts a new platform, creatively dubbed SPA2. SPA2 will also spawn several Volvo-badged models as well as the Polestar 3. Unlike BMW, Volvo had in the late-2010s made the decision to transition to 100% BEV by 2030. So while many of BMW’s current platforms are designed to support internal combustion, mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid and BEV powertrains in the same architecture, SPA2 is exclusively designed to be electric. 

As with most legacy automakers, Volvo is retaining a degree of flexibility and has acknowledged it may not meet its earlier target of being 100% electric by the end of the decade. CEO Jim Rowan recently acknowledged the mild and plug-in hybrid systems are a good bridging technology to full electrification. Rather than full abandoning powertrains that include an internal combustion engine, Rowan expects some further investment in hybridized vehicles until the market is ready for nothing but BEVs. The automaker just won’t be putting those ICEs into the SPA2 platform and will likely continue some production of SPA models. 

No Weird Sci-Fi Looks, Just a Volvo

In most ways, the EX90 is a direct successor to the XC90 just as it was always meant to be. The design language is an evolution of the look that debuted on the second-generation XC90 including an updated take on the “Thor’s Hammer” signature running lights and of course a mostly solid front fascia since there is no need to cool an engine. 

Prior Volvo’s had static running lamps with the headlamp elements positioned above and below the handle of the hammer. As has become common on modern BEVs, the designers have made the lamps more dynamic with the segments sequentially lighting from the inboard end of the handle and then expanding into a vertical stack that comprises the hammer head. The handle is made up of two horizontal rows that slide up and down respectively to expose the headlamp elements behind. It’s a distinct take on modern automotive lighting. 

The overall shape and proportions of the EX90’s body are very similar to XC90 and immediately recognizable as a Volvo. The folds in the sheetmetal are a bit more sharply creased than the rounded edges of the XC90. We’ve also seen a similar evolution of the Volvo design language on the compact EX30. At the rear, the taillights no longer directly extend up the D-pillars. Instead the upper portion of the C-shaped elements connects across the full width of the tailgate while separate light segments run along the pillars. 

The side-glass is similarly shaped to the XC90 albeit with slightly sharper corners as we see in the metal contours. Another updated version of the Volvo “Iron Mark” badge is prominent on the fascia but now more integrated into the solid panel. 

A unique element of the EX90 is the hump at the leading edge of the roof above the center of the windshield. This hump is the housing for the Luminar Iris LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensor. All EX90s will get LIDAR fitted as standard equipment although at launch it’s not actually being used for anything. The LIDAR capabilities will be switched on with an over-the-air (OTA) software update at some indeterminate future date. 

Compared to the XC90, the EX90 is about 3-inches longer, 2.4-inches wider, 1-inch lower and rides on the same 117.5-inch wheelbase. That puts the 198.3-inch EX90 about 1-inch shorter than the Audi Q7 and Lincoln Aviator and 5-inches shorter than the Lexus TX and BMW X7 3-row premium SUVs. Make a note of those numbers because they get more important as we move inside. 

EX90s are being offered with a choice of three wheel designs that offer a nice blend of aerodynamic efficiency and style. The base 20-inch and top 22-inch wheels are both five-spoke designs while the mid-level 21-inch gets eight spokes. 

Scandinavian Minimalism Mostly FTW

One of the best things about Volvos, especially in the modern era is the clean, uncluttered cabin. For the most part, Volvo designers in the past decade have done a great job of providing lots of features and a very premium feel without overwhelming the driver with too many interactions. They’re not perfect of course, modern Volvos have unfortunately resorted to putting almost all climate control functions in the infotainment touchscreen instead of having those pesky physical controls that can be used without looking away from the road. 

This trend continues in the EX90, but as with the XC90 and other models, the temperature and fan speed controls live in a permanent bar at the base of the 14.5-inch center touch screen regardless of what else is being displayed. One of the only other major cabin annoyances is the decision to follow the trend started by Volkswagen on its BEVs of having only two window switches on the driver’s door armrest. A third button must be pressed to toggle between controlling the front and rear windows. It’s debatable whether the slight cost savings of doing this in a mainstream VW model justify the aggravation. In a premium SUV that starts at $80,000, this decision is inexcusable. Just add the extra window switch and be done with it please. 

The clean and relatively distraction free dashboard is covered in a mix of Volvo’s Nordico synthetic leather, fabric and real wood veneers. The examples we drove had the light ash dash trim that looks elegant and provides an airier feel to the cabin even when mixed with the charcoal Nordico. That feeling is further enhanced if you opt for the fabric seat coverings. These are comprised of a blend of gray wool and recycled polyester that’s been available on several other Volvo models for the past several years and feels and looks fantastic. 

Volvo has a long history of making great seats that provide lots of comfort and support in all the right places. As someone with relatively long thighs, I was pleased to find the EX90 has extendable thigh supports in addition to the adjustable side bolsters and lumbar support. The first two rows of seats get heating as standard. Ventilated front seats are also available, but the pre-production models we drove were missing this feature that would have been useful in the southern California sun, especially with the all-glass roof that is also standard. 

Unlike another notable EV maker that used to be based in California, Volvo has retained a physical control for selecting gears although it has now moved to a steering column stalk as have many other BEVs. The left stalk on the column is still there to control turn signals and wipers. In front of the driver is a 10-inch display for vehicle information as well as heads-up display. Both of the physical displays are bright, contrasty and easy to read in all lighting conditions. 

The center console is very simple with a wireless phone charging pad at the front end and a padded armrest covering a storage bin at the back. In between there is a sliding cover over two cupholders and a rotary knob that used to reside below the center screen for volume and play/pause. Below the cantilevered console is a large storage area that can accommodate a good sized purse or my Canon R10 with one of my older DSLR lenses on it. There are also two USB-C ports for charging devices. 

One design element I was extremely pleased to see is that the vents each have a tab that allows the passenger and driver to simply reach out and direct airflow without ever tapping through touch screen menus. After seeing Lincoln follow Tesla and Rivian down the electromechanical vent path this year, I was thrilled to find these old school units in the EX90. Every automotive designer in the world needs to read Jason Torchinsky’s article those ridiculous vent controls as soon as possible and take it to heart. 

The second row is available with either two individual seats or a 40-20-40 split bench. Each of the three second row segments can slide fore-aft independently and the center section also includes Volvo’s unique integrated child booster seat that positions kids higher so the seat belts can provide better protection. 

While the shorter length mentioned above makes it easier to park and maneuver an EX90 than some of its competitors, it does have a downside when it comes to third-row space. I’m 5-foot-10-inches and I set the driver’s seat for my comfort and then slid the second row seat behind it so I could just fit with a couple of inches of knee clearance. When I then crawled into the third-row and put the second row seat back, I had just enough room to clear my knees. However, my head was touching the headliner. Anyone six-feet or taller would not have a fun time in the third row. To their credit, Volvo doesn’t recommend the last row for anyone over 5-foot-six-inches.

The other downside of shorter 3-row SUVs like the EX90 is limited cargo area. With the third row seats up, there is only 10.9 cubic feet in the back. With the third row folded down and the cargo cover in place, that grows to 23.1 cubic feet and 35.6 cubic feet with the cover removed. That’s a decent amount for a larger two-row utility but marginal for a three row. Like the XC40 and C40 EVs from Volvo there is also a small front storage area of 1.6 cubic feet but it’s mainly useful for storing a charging cable and a few odds and maybe a backpack that isn’t too overstuffed as mine often is when I travel. 

Keeping You Entertained

Volvo and Polestar were the first brands to roll out infotainment systems based on Android Automotive with Google Automotive Services (GAS) back in 2020. GAS includes the Google Play Store, Maps and Assistant along with some background services. Since then, this infotainment system has become increasingly common and has been implemented by Renault, Nissan, General Motors, Ford and Honda. Several other automakers including Stellantis and Rivian use the Android Automotive operating system without GAS, substituting other providers of digital voice assistants, mapping and app stores. 

Just as on Android phones, automakers have the freedom to craft their own user interface, just as Samsung has its One UI that is distinct from the look and feel of a Motorola or Google Pixel phone. But all of these GAS systems utilize the same app store and services. In general, all of these systems have similar functionality and the EX90 is no different. If you choose to login to your Google account, it will sync any favorites you have saved in maps, your voice pattern from the assistant and let you download and sign into apps like Spotify, Youtube Music, PocketCasts, Libby and numerous other streaming apps.  

The EX90 uses an NFC key card and has support for using a smartphone as a key through ultra-wideband which is much more secure than the Bluetooth LE used by many other automakers. Each driver can create their own user profile and have their own set of apps loaded when they get in that are tied to their key. 

Unlike GM, Volvo is retaining support for smartphone projection so if you prefer Apple Maps and Music to the Google offerings, you can continue to use Carplay either through a USB-C cable or wirelessly. One of the big advantages of modern infotainment systems whether embedded like Android Automotive or projected is that automakers are no longer skimping on the computing power. Like most Android Automotive systems, the EX90 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 which incorporates a decently powerful GPU and neural processing units alongside the ARM CPU cores. As a result, the interface never felt laggy and apps popped open almost immediately. 

The 14.5-inch center touchscreen in the EX90 has about 2.5 times the area of the 9-inch display used in previous Volvos including the XC90 and Volvo has put that space to good use. By default, the currently used app such as Maps takes about ¾ of the display area. Below that are two widgets for the next most recently used apps such as a media app or messaging in a manner similar to what you’ll find on Ford’s portrait style SYNC 4 displays. At the bottom is a static strip including the home button, app drawer, climate controls, shortcut to vehicle settings and hazard lights. When parked, there is also a static button to open the glovebox. 

The base EX90 trim which is called Plus has a Bose audio system while the Ultra trim can also be optioned with a $3,200 Bowers and Wilkens setup that has 25 speakers including headrest drivers. It’s powered by a 1,610-watt amplifier and has Dolby Atmos support. Our test vehicles were set up with a playlist of various music mixed with Atmos spatial audio, and I must say, it sounded quite spectacular. Even listening to standard stereo mixes, the sound was crisp and clear and this was further accentuated by how quiet the EX90 is driving down the road. 

The Brand That Is All About Safety: Radars Inside The Car

If there is one automotive brand that is synonymous with safety, it’s Volvo. The Swedes pioneered the three-point safety belt in 1959 and then made the concept freely available to the entire industry. In the years since Volvo has developed features like blindspot monitoring, pedestrian detection and automatic braking and much more. 

The EX90 represents Volvo’s next step forward, or at least it should once all the software is done, but even then, it won’t be first to market with new technologies this time. There lies the biggest problem with the SPA2 platform. Volvo has adopted a more modern electrical and electronic (E/E) architecture for SPA2 that consolidates dozens of distributed ECUs down to a much smaller number, with two main units. There is the computer powering the infotainment, instrumentation and other body functions that is powered by the aforementioned Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155. 

The other central compute platform uses a pair of Nvidia systems-on-chip (SOC), an Xavier and an Orin. The older Xavier SOC can provide about 30 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of integer computing to handle a variety of artificial intelligence tasks like machine vision. The newer Orin which is already widely used by many Chinese automakers including Xpeng, Nio, Li Auto and others has over 250 TOPS of AI computing capability. Various tasks are split between these SOCs, but together they will have the ability to handle a lot of driver assist and driving automation tasks. The key words there are “will have” because most of that capability isn’t enabled yet. 

Following the strategy pioneered by Tesla, Volvo is equipping all EX90s with a suite of sensors although Volvo has a significantly more robust set than any current Tesla. There is of course that Luminar Iris lidar sensor with a range of over 250 meters for detection of pedestrians and 120m for detecting a tire carcass on the road at night.There are also 8 cameras of which 4 are 8MP units. Two of those cameras are in the side mirror housings looking back while the other two sit behind the windshield. The windshield cameras have similar sensors but different optics to provide a wide-angle view and a narrower but longer range view. The other four cameras are lower resolution units in the front fascia, rear end and under the mirror housings to provide the surround view. Finally, there are five radar sensors, a long range unit in the front and four medium range units in the corners that provide blindspot and cross traffic alert front and rear. 

The sensors also extend to the cabin. As is becoming increasingly common, there is an infrared camera just below the instrument cluster display that powers the driver understanding system. This goes beyond the typical driver monitors that we’ve had since GM Super Cruise debuted in 2017. In addition to watching the driver’s eye gaze to make sure they are paying attention to the road, there is quite a bit more sophistication in the software. 

According to research done by Volvo, drivers on long trips can often be looking down the road, but not necessarily paying attention, instead falling into an almost trance-like state indicative of cognitive distraction. Volvo has been studying driver behavior behind the wheel and recognized certain patterns such as lack of eye scanning and various head movements that are indicative of inattention even when “watching” the road. Through developing this deeper understanding of the driver, Volvo claims to provide better alerts of when the driver should take a break. 

The steering wheel also includes capacitive sensors to provide a direct indication of where the driver’s hands are. Some automakers including Ford and Tesla continue to try to rely on a torque sensor in the wheel to look for the small motions that might indicate the driver’s hands are on the wheel. While this approach is certainly cheaper, it is notoriously unreliable, often giving false positives and it can be easily fooled by placing a weight on the wheel as countless Tesla drivers have demonstrated. 

The EX90 is also one of the first production vehicles to feature in-cabin radar sensors. Genesis debuted similar technology in 2020 on the GV70 and is adding it to other models for 2025. The EX90 has seven Acconeer A111 radar sensors arrayed with two above each row of seats and the last above the cargo area. The 60 GHz sensors measure just 5.5×5.2-mm and consume less than 1-mW of power. The radar is sensitive enough to detect about 1-mm of motion from an infant breathing, even under a blanket. If the driver gets out of the car and tries to lock the doors while a person or animal remains in the seats or cargo area, the EX90 won’t lock and an alert will be flashed on the center screen. If there is sufficient battery charge, the climate control will also stay on. 

All of the software to power these systems has been developed in-house at Volvo’s software business unit, Zenseact. While the in-cabin sensing capabilities are active at vehicle launch, most of the driver assist features won’t be arriving until some later date via OTA updates. When we drove the EX90 in late August 2024, the assist features available were effectively the same as Volvos have had for several years. That means the hands-on Pilot Assist lane centering, automatic emergency braking, blindspot monitoring and the basics that are now common on most new vehicles. 

The only new to Volvo feature is the lane change assist which is supposed to use the sensors to check if the adjacent lane is clear and then execute the lane change automatically when the driver taps the turn signal. When trying this during some stretches of highway driving, I found it to be very inconsistent, frequently canceling the lane change request even if the adjacent lane was completely clear. Perhaps one in five requests actually resulted in a lane change. 

Part of this is likely due to the fact that the EX90 still doesn’t have hands-off driver assist. Since the driver’s hands need to stay on the wheel, the lane change assist isn’t actually very useful because if it detects any motion of the wheel from the driver, it automatically cancels. Once Volvo deploys hands-free capability, it should become more useful. 

However, hands-free capability or other enhanced automation and assists remain absent from the EX90 for now. Volvo has said it will roll out features like hands-off/eyes-on (generally referred to as level 2+ despite no such designation existing) and automated highway driving (something like level 3) will be released only once it has been validated to meet its safety requirements. 

Among the upcoming features are an enhanced version of automatic emergency braking and collision avoidance that leverages the lidar. Luminar has been demonstrating this capability on its test vehicles for a couple of years, but no production vehicle has released it yet. For now, Volvo is using the lidar, radars and cameras to collect data from real world use by customers to help in final tuning of new features and no release dates have been revealed, although we may start to see these in 2025. 

What Makes it Go

Initially all EX90s are being delivered in a dual motor configuration with permanent magnet motors at each axle. As it did with the XC40/C40 Recharge, Volvo will probably offer a single motor variant at some point, likely with rear wheel drive. The base configuration produces 402-hp and 568 lb-ft of torque. The optional performance variant offers 510-hp and 671 lb-ft of torque. Both variants use the same 241-hp front axle drive unit with the base setup getting a 160-hp rear drive unit. 

The performance system upgrades the rear drive unit to 268-hp. The rear axle drive unit also incorporates a clutch pack that can provide torque vectoring capability while cornering and also decouple the motor from the wheels during light load conditions for better energy efficiency. 

Sitting under the floor and between these motors is a 111-kWh (gross) battery pack with 107-kWh usable. The case of the battery pack is mainly comprised of aluminum extrusions with cross members made of the same material. These are designed to protect the battery modules in the event of an impact and limit the potential for cell damage that can lead to a thermal runaway. 

The battery packs are assembled at Volvo’s Charleston, SC assembly plant where the EX90 and Polestar 3 are built. Currently, the pre-assembled modules filled with nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) prismatic cells are provided by CATL and produced in China. Most of the other pack components are also sourced from China which means that the EX90 and Polestar 3 won’t be eligible for IRA tax credits if you purchase. However, if you lease, the tax credit should be applied because it’s technically considered a commercial vehicle sale. Volvo is actively looking to resource these batteries from a supplier producing North America to expand tax credit eligibility and improve the sustainability of these vehicles by reducing transportation. 

We didn’t get an opportunity to do any charging with the EX90, but Volvo claims it will absorb a maximum of 250-kW from a DC fast charger and get from 10-80% charge in about 30 minutes. That’s a good peak charge rate, but the overall time is slow enough to indicate that charging starts ramping down fairly early. The maximum AC charging rate on a North American single phase 240V circuit is 11.5-kW. For now, the EX90s are still being fitted with CCS1 charging connectors although at some point, probably later in 2025, Volvo will transition to the NACS/J3400 charging port. The EX90 also has built-in hardware support for bi-directional charging, but this feature is also not yet turned on. 

So How Does it Go?

The suspension setup of the EX90 is fairly conventional with double wishbones at the front axle and integral link layout at the rear corners. The Plus model rides on steel coil springs with passive dampers while the Ultra gets a more sophisticated combination of dual chamber air springs and adaptive dampers. The Plus trim gets the 20-inch alloy wheels as standard while the Ultra gets the 21-inch units and the 22-inch wheels are optional on both trims. 

All of the EX90s for the media drive program were Ultras with the Twin Motor Performance and 22-inch wheels. Also because this was a global program with media from all over the world, Volvo opted to fit all of the EX90s with the European tire setup which consists of 265/40R22 Pirelli Scorpion summer tires. Here in North America EX90 buyers will get all-season tires regardless of which wheel size they select. The EX90 also has a fairly conventional electrically assisted rack and pinion steering system that only turns the front wheels, so no crab walking with this Volvo unless something is seriously broken. 

Our morning drive route took us out from Newport Coast, along some highways and then up and over the mountains to Lake Elsinore and Temecula. After a lunch break we hit some stop and go traffic along the Pacific Coast Highway. 

For the most part, driving an EX90 is a pretty conventional experience, particularly if you are accustomed to driving a larger, premium SUV. Apart from the previously discussed control differences, it doesn’t feel drastically different from an XC90 Recharge (the PHEV version). The most noticeable change is how quiet the EX90 is. 

I first sat in an EX90 last March when I interviewed Volvo’s head of software engineering Alwin Bakkenes at Nvidia GTC. The EX90 was out in the middle of a crowded show floor and conducting a decent interview for a podcast would have been nearly impossible. But as soon as we closed the doors, the cacophony disappeared. That quiet space makes for a very relaxing driving environment that melds extremely well with the very comfortable seats and the full back massage. 

Moving the shift selector to the steering column is a smart move that we should probably be doing on most EVs. The electronic shifter on Volvo’s PHEVs has always been a bit finicky, sometimes selecting neutral when transitioning between drive and reverse, leaving the car rolling when you release the brake. 

In the EX90 we did encounter an issue if we got out of the car to take some photos and left the phone that had been configured as the key sitting on the wireless charging pad. When we got back in, most of the time it would not shift from park back into drive or reverse. If we got out of the car and took the phone with us, it would all be fine. Apparently, this is a software issue with some device timing, probably related to security features that is still being fine tuned. For now, owners might want to use the NFC card to be on the safe side and keep it with them. 

Once we got onto the highway, we tried out the Pilot Assist and unsurprisingly, it worked about the same as it has for several years on fuel burning Volvos. It does an adequate job of keeping the car centered in the lane when the road is relatively straight. When highway curves get a bit tighter, it still tends to drift toward the outside which is problematic, but since it’s a hands-on system, it’s not that big of a deal. 

As discussed earlier, the lane change assist is pretty much useless for a vehicle that still requires hands-on the wheel. Hopefully that changes when Volvo deploys hands-off capability. On the positive side, the driver understanding system detected when I was looking away from the road and provided alerts and had none of the false positive alerts that regularly plague Ford’s Blue Cruise system if the steering wheel isn’t moved enough. 

Once we got off the interstate and into the mountains, the handling turned out to be decent for an SUV that weighs more than 6,200-lbs empty. The weighting of the steering effort, especially in performance mode felt good although feedback through the wheel was limited. Pushed to its limits, as expected it would understeer gently and it was pretty easy to tell where those limits are on the EU-spec summer tires. With the all-season tires that Americans are forced to endure, the limits will probably be a bit lower, but the limit transition will likely be even more gentle. 

While we didn’t encounter any pavement as broken as what is available in southeast Michigan, the ride quality from the air spring suspension was up to what we would expect from a Volvo which is to say comfortable and controlled. A very handy feature is the button in the rear cargo area that lets you actually lower the rear end a bit to reduce the liftover height when loading the back. 

One of the advantages of driving an EV is regenerative braking and ideally, the ability to use a one-pedal driving mode. Tapping the vehicle icon in the lower right of the center screen brings you a range of vehicle settings including one-pedal driving. Within that, Volvo allows you to select between off, auto and on. Off as expected emulates the coasting behavior of a traditional automatic transmission, internal combustion vehicle. Auto seems to vary the amount of regen and will probably be the preferred choice for many that are new to EVs. 

I personally prefer the on mode that gives the most regen although it still wasn’t as aggressive as I’d like. On the twisty mountain roads where I can typically just  modulate the accelerator pedal for smooth driving at about 8 or 9/10ths without ever touching the brake. In the EX90, I did find myself tapping the brake pedal more than I do in many other EVs like the Mercedes EQS SUV I recently drove around Sonoma for a week. Most Volvo drivers will probably be fine with this, but since it’s software, I’d like to see the engineers give us just a bit more control here. 

Having over 500-hp at your disposal, or even 400-hp is going to be more than enough for 99.9% of drivers even with a vehicle weighing over 3 tons. You’re not going to win any drag races against a Model X Plaid in the EX90, but truthfully, how many Tesla or Rivian R1S owners actually use all that power after they’ve showed off to their friends in the first couple of weeks? Sub-3-second 0-60 in a vehicle like this is just dumb. The standard twin motor EX90 will get to 60 mph in a very acceptable 5.7-seconds while the performance version cuts that to 4.7-seconds and we never felt wanting for power, even accelerating uphill on a mountain pass. 

We didn’t have the opportunity to do a proper range test with the EX90. However, our roughly 160 mile round trip route consumed about 60% of the battery capacity according to the instrument cluster. When riding on either the 20 or 22-inch wheels, the official rated range is 300 miles. When equipped with the 21-inch wheels, the EX90 is rated at 310-miles. Based on past experience with other electric Volvo and Polestar vehicles and a more typical driving pattern compared to what we did, 300+ miles on a charge should be quite achievable. 

The Bottom Line

There’s no clean verdict I can come to about the 2025 Volvo EX90. There is a lot to like about this vehicle and overall I really did enjoy driving it. Normally, I never recommend buying any product based on promises of what it might someday be able to do. For example, if you like a Tesla, don’t buy it because it might someday safely drive itself wherever you want to go (it won’t) but get it because you like what it does today. The same is true of the EX90. It may eventually be able to fully automated driving in some conditions, in fact it’s more likely to do that than a Model X. But it can’t do that today. 

Starting at $80,000 for the EX90 Plus and $90,640 for the Ultra Performance it’s not cheap. On the other hand, if we compare it against the other 3-row, premium electric SUVs, it’s actually not a bad deal. The starting price is the same as a Model X and even with its snug third row, the Volvo is roomier and the doors probably won’t try to bonk you. Compared to that Mercedes EQS SUV, the starting price is about $24,000 less. The other Germans have yet to launch equivalent 3-row electric utilities. 

An alternative comparison that Volvo probably wouldn’t be thrilled with is the Kia EV9. I’m a big fan of the 3-row Kia. In it’s all-wheel-drive GT-Line trim it’s rated at 270 miles although that number isn’t hard to exceed in the real world, but topping 300 miles would be tough. The GT-Line goes for about $6,000 less than the base EX90, and offers a more usable third-row. The Volvo feels a lot more luxurious and has the technical headroom to eventually offer much more capable automation features than what the Kia can achieve.

Fans of the XC90 will probably feel right at home in the EX90 and the EV has potential to grow into more than what it is today. Just don’t buy it with any expectations of how those future features might work and you’ll probably be quite content with it as is. If and when those features do arrive, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised.