Preserve to fast first impressions of the 2025 Volvo EX90 and also you may get the improper concept.
In one of many many inherently Swedish facets of this next-generation electrical SUV, it doesn’t flaunt the long run on the skin, however it definitely wears it effectively inside.
The outside of the Volvo EX90 is what it must be—an evolution from the XC90. Then again, its cabin embraces an excessive minimalist method, cozies as much as a touchscreen for almost every little thing, and syncs up with a software-defined-vehicle future.
In a latest day of up-close time with the South Carolina-made EX90, set to reach this fall, Volvo was massive on the car’s software program, and its platform’s origin story rooted in world expertise partnerships with Google, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Luminar. However with the angle of a number of hours of driving time, I used to be reminded that Volvo hasn’t forgotten with the EX90 what the corporate does finest—making individuals really feel comfy, protected, and pampered, with out overtly flaunting it.
2025 Volvo EX90
Volvo EX90: Touchscreen’s the important thing touchpoint
There’s no shying away from the vertically oriented 14.5-inch touchscreen while you get into the 2025 EX90, and also you’ll get acquainted with it shortly. Whereas a 9.0-inch digital gauge cluster and head-up show assist preserve monitor of every little thing, the touchscreen is the hub for most of the controls and, prefer it or not, you’ll must toggle via screen-based tabs to regulate the mirrors, steering wheel, and seats—though the seats have a middle button to click on via its energy changes.
For newbies like me, it’s merely not as straightforward as precise adjustment switches. Whereas we’re at it, the directional buttons on the Volvo steering wheel merely don’t provide the type of tremendous precision in adjustment that Tesla’s tactile thumbwheels do.
However drivers might realistically solely want to do that as soon as, and Volvo says that its system is a step forward. Driver profiles correspond to every identified smartphone, together with Telephone as Key expertise, and as somebody approaches the car, pings from 4 to 6 ultra-wideband sensors across the car decide which telephone is getting into on the driver’s door. If this all goes in keeping with plan, the motive force enters the car with the seats, mirrors, steering wheel, presets, and different preferences all set to their liking. If by some probability the automobile guesses improper, Volvo says you may choose these profiles manually. That is one I really sit up for placing to the take a look at with a household of units.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
Volvo’s newest display expertise within the EX90 will really feel acquainted to nearly anybody, with a tablet-like interface that handles local weather controls. On the backside of the display is a locked row of icons that gives fast navigation to a house display, apps, settings, and local weather management particulars. Above it’s a row of contextual icons that may change relying on the present use, whereas above that widgets (for telephone or audio) present a fast have a look at what’s enjoying or accessible. The overwhelming majority of the display is used for navigation, with a transparent, vertically oriented map show that’s straightforward to look at shortly (however you can even add it to the instrument panel). It’s more likely to evolve and a lifetime of auto updates are coming. Volvo says it should preserve knowledge for navigation and over-the-air updates stay even when clients let their 5G knowledge subscriptions for apps and streaming lapse.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
Volvo EX90 is environment friendly, nimble, and quiet
I spent the day with two totally different Twin Motor Efficiency variations of the SUV, within the prime Extremely trim, each bearing the identical $93,345 sticker value. One in every of them provided a Sand Dune exterior (a really gentle tan) with a Daybreak Quilted Nordico inside, the opposite a tailor-made wool mix inside and Vapour Gray exterior. Each of them wore 22-inch 5 spoke aero wheels.
That is the heaviest, most luxurious EX90 within the lineup, at greater than 6,000 kilos by international-market specs, and this introduced three nice surprises within the driving expertise.
First, by early indications, the EX90 could be very environment friendly for an enormous three-row SUV. I averaged 2.7 miles per kwh on a 146-mile loop together with some stop-and-go boulevard driving in Orange County, up and down a demanding mountain street, and a few high-speed cruising at a really quick clip. Then on a loop of about 40 miles that included extra boulevard driving and a few denser, slower-moving afternoon visitors I averaged greater than 2.9 miles per kwh.
The EX90’s battery pack makes use of lithium-ion nickel manganese cobalt cells and provides as much as a gross 111 kwh. Volvo has mentioned that usable capability is as much as 107 kwh, so based mostly on what we noticed that quantities to a real-world vary proper round 300 miles, with out driving notably slowly or gently.
Volvo’s official EPA rankings for the EX90 are 310 miles with the 21-inch wheels and 300 miles for fashions with the 20- and 22-inch wheels.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
The second nice shock was how gentle and nimble the EX90 drives, contemplating these three rows and 6,000-plus kilos. Extremely variations—the one type we drove at this occasion—embrace the air suspension in addition to semi-active (multi-stage) dampers. These additional suspension bits aren’t included in additional reasonably priced Plus variations, so we’ll must report again sooner or later on whether or not they can keep such prowess within the corners. Within the Extremely, you may choose from comfortable or agency for the steering and suspension, independently, however I settled on comfortable for each as with that the steering centered extra neatly and the suspension nonetheless firmed up when wanted in tight corners.
The third takeaway, which left me moderately awestruck, was merely how quietly the EX90 rides, whether or not accelerating quickly, touring at excessive pace, or using on the roughest street we discovered alongside our route in largely easy Orange County. Hannes Veen, Volvo’s senior supervisor for propulsion methods, mentioned that the crew didn’t use any type of energetic noise cancellation or sound manipulation; as a substitute Volvo merely paid a whole lot of consideration to noise insulation and bushings, together with fluid-filled mounts for the motor items.
Whereas that is certainly Volvo’s first home-grown “software-defined car,” it’s additionally home-grown in an engineering sense, with the overwhelming majority of growth accomplished across the automaker’s headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
EX90 has fast, satisfying efficiency, with one exception
In its top-trim Twin Motor Efficiency Extremely kind, the EX90 could be very fast. As is commonly the case in bigger EVs, it felt even faster from the entrance seats than its 0-60 mph time of 4.7 seconds may recommend. Whereas motor items themselves are the identical throughout the EX90 lineup, Twin Motor fashions make 402 hp and 568 lb-ft of torque mixed, whereas Twin Motor Efficiency variations provide 510 hp and 571 lb-ft. The EX90 favors the entrance motor in regular cruising, and far of the time saves the rear motor for fast launches and traction wants. However a Efficiency AWD mode will entry a relentless (however nonetheless variable) energy circulate to the rear wheels at 19-81 mph, accessing extra balanced dynamics. I couldn’t really feel a lot of a distinction, or detect the seamless transition because the EX90 brings its rear motor out and in by way of a clutch.
The accelerator and steering inputs have a felt exact, however there was one factor lacking within the EX90’s in any other case finely fettled dynamics. Volvo has opted to supply simply three modes for regenerative braking: off, auto, and on—and the brake-pedal really feel in our take a look at autos was downright spongy at a standstill, to the purpose the place it was arduous to inform when the friction pads had been or weren’t making contact.
The “on” setting is a real one-pedal mode. It is aggressive sufficient that you could be solely must press the brake pedal for unanticipated stops. “Off” brings a coasting/gliding conduct that dials out all of the regen and is like Impartial in a gasoline mannequin. The “auto” setting applies a situational method, counting on sensors, however I merely didn’t have sufficient drive time to get a way of that. I used to be left wanting a center setting for regenerative braking—one that will progressively scrub pace off extra like a gasoline car in Drive or one gear down.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
Volvo EX90 has luxurious seats and house
Between the 2 autos I used to be in, I received to pattern Volvo’s two high-end upholstery decisions for the EX90. Whereas one among them had the Nordico artificial upholstery, which mixes in plant merchandise and appears a bit of simpler to wash, my favourite of the 2 was the tailor-made wool mix, which mixes in recycled polyester and gives the comfy but breathable really feel of an outdoorsy wool sweater.
It’s simply a simple, comfy house general. A variety of heights and sizes will discover no difficulty becoming into the primary two rows, and the second row features a built-in booster seat for smaller youngsters. The third row is a pinch for taller individuals to get into and out of, however we discovered that 6-footers may match behind two successive 6-footers within the first and second rows. Entrance-seat house is huge, and the passenger aspect has an prolonged footwell that impresses as a ledge for footwear (though Volvo informed me it’s there for security).
U.S. cargo house measurements aren’t accessible but, however it feels decidedly bigger on this space than the XC90. The ability-folding third row simply faucets into 50.2 inches of cargo ground from the again of the second row and probably greater than 80 inches for lengthy objects in case you fold down the second row. A entrance trunk sits underneath the lengthy hood, and whereas it covers a large space it’s shallow and too divided-up by hard-plastic partitions to be all that helpful.
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90
Volvo EX90: Lidar, Pilot Help, V2X to make your world higher
Volvo’s security suite incorporates a lidar sensor for the primary time within the EX90, and it offers its active-safety methods an extended, extra correct have a look at the street forward. Volvo says that it might assist minimize extreme accidents by 20%.
Pilot Help is Volvo’s appropriately named driver-assistance system supposed to assist with freeway driving, and it employs all the car’s security sensors whereas utilizing capacitive sensors to observe that the motive force’s palms are on the wheel. Up to now, it takes a conservative method. Participating it requires a tip down on the shift lever to the place the “B” setting could be on some autos. Drivers can solely take their palms off the wheel for 14 seconds, and whereas one hand could be on the wheel whereas cruising alongside, each palms have to be on the wheel earlier than it gives an assisted lane change. That type of defeats the aim, I discovered, and it’s so cautious that it’s not a characteristic you’ll be utilizing in visitors.
dcbel bidirectional charger for 2025 Volvo EX90
dcbel bidirectional charger for 2025 Volvo EX90
dcbel bidirectional charger for 2025 Volvo EX90
Bidirectional charging is coming within the type of a DC unit from Volvo accomplice dcbel that may function at as much as 25 kw relying on the state of affairs and is able to backing up the house, peak-shaving, or sending energy again to the grid. Extra particulars are coming quickly.
Now the arduous half: The 2025 Volvo EX90, as I examined it in Extremely trim, with the non-compulsory Bowers & Wilkins audio system and 22-inch wheels, prices $94,640, together with the $1,295 vacation spot price. The beginning value for the EX90 is $81,290. That’s about $6,000 larger than the top-spec, all-wheel-drive Kia EV9 GT-Line, one other three-row SUV that helps bidirectional charging. It seems that the EX90 won’t qualify for the EV tax credit score, a minimum of initially.
In the end it seems like Volvo has saved its priorities straight. The EX90 is a very new type of car on the within and innovates in an extended record of considerate methods. Those that get it gained’t really feel a must shout that out.
Volvo paid for journey bills in order that we may convey you this take a look at drive evaluate.