Volvo EX90 Performance review

At least in theory. The reality, at least for now, looks somewhat different. Scrolling through the blurb that accompanied the car’s Californian press launch, I was struck by the fact that all the releases had 2022 dates on them. The car was actually due on sale last year, but now will only just start reaching customers this year and even then it won’t actually be finished. The fearsome complexity of all those electronics means that fully two years after the car was first shown, and goodness knows how many since the project started, early customer cars will have no lidar, no smart charging capacity at home, no plug and charge (where the charging station recognises the car and bills automatically), no alert of traffic crossing in front of the car, no ability to let the cruise control slow the car in curves and, would you believe, no CarPlay.

What’s more, if Volvo knows when these features will be enabled (by over-the-air update) it’s not saying. The best I could extract from anyone was ‘hopefully some time in 2025’. For myself, CarPlay aside, I couldn’t really care less about the tech but, as some of you may have spotted, I’m probably some distance from the core customer at whom this car is being aimed.

But let’s set aside its teething troubles and look at the car itself. It’s not a replacement for the XC90 per se, which looks likely to stay on sale for rather longer than intended thanks to the changing attitudes towards EVs; besides, the EX90 occupies a rather different position in the market. A fully stacked XC ‘Ultra’ costs £73,784 but the cheaper of the two EX90s that will come to the UK also in ‘Ultra’ trim level (there is no other for now, though a mid-spec ‘Plus’ is likely next year along with a single-motor variant) costs £96,255. Go for the ‘Performance’ model, which just seems to be a different set of powertrain instructions because both have identical batteries and electric motors, and power rises from 402bhp to 510bhp and the price to £100,555, so £5200 for another 108bhp. The only option that can be specified on either is an electrically powered towbar for £1400. The car can tow up to 2200kg braked.

It lands in something of a niche in the market. The Mercedes EQS SUV is markedly more expensive, the BMW iX, to which it would seem closest, only available with five seats. The Tesla Model X would be right up there were it still sold in the UK while I guess people might also look at cars like the rather good Kia EV9 and VW ID. Buzz but both sit at rather different price points. Volvo must be rueing those delays because instead of having the field to itself for a while, there’ll be electric Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports with which to contend soon after deliveries begin.

A thousand words in and not one about the driving experience, which might be a record for me, but it’s just that kind of car. We’ll get going soon.

I don’t much like the look of the exterior though Volvo would have been smart to have hired an iX and left it out the front of the hotel for the duration of the launch because the EX90 is so much better looking than that. But whether they need ‘em or not, cars without grilles just look odd, like they’ve had their mouths taped up.

Inside is far better, typically Scandinavian in its clean, uncluttered ambience. An enormous tablet in the middle of the dash dominates the view, but I notice another far smaller screen looking like something of an afterthought in front of the driver and sigh with relief. The dreadful mistake Volvo made with the EX30 by putting all, and I do mean all, information out of your natural line of sight has been avoided. There’s a head-up display too.

For the most part the main tablet is actually pretty easy to find your way around but it is still infuriating to find functions as basic as mirror and steering wheel adjustment buried in sub menus. It would cause precisely zero extra dash clutter to have a mirror control on the door by the window switches and the equivalent for the steering on the column but you still have to go furtling around for them, either parked up or with your eyes off the road for longer than seems safe. Oddly when I did this on the move there was nary a nudge to be found from the car, but perhaps that feature isn’t working either right now…

What’s it like to drive? Brilliant in the main. Which is not to say it will do powerslides on demand because it won’t, but for the intended purpose, Volvo has done an outstanding job. What strikes you first is the refinement: it’s staggering. This might be the quietest car I’ve travelled in, and I’ve driven a Rolls-Royce Spectre. You expect near zero powertrain noise, but usually all that means is you hear the wind and tyre roar even more. Not today you don’t. The ride is less impressive, but that means that it’s only very, very good, at least out here in the rarely challenging environs of The Golden State.

The EX90 is more than fast enough to steam past struggling Peterbilts on mountain passes too. I did throw it through some corners because I knew you’d want me too: I selected ‘performance mode’ which was meant to transform the suspension but, unless I left the faculties that have served me these last 35 years in the long term car park at Heathrow, it makes very little difference at all. No matter: despite its 2.7-tonne weight (yes folks, that 400kg more than the car it replaces, almost an entire Caterham) it clings doggedly, I might even say gamely to the task, the limit signalled not by anything as traditional as feel, but the Pirellis gently whistling while they work. There was nothing unexpected or unpleasant here, nor anything that might remotely tempt me to drive it that way again.

Instead I wafted back to base, enjoying the absurdly high standard of sound reproduction from the 1000-watt, 25-speaker Bowers & Wilkins entertainment system. I tried adjusting the lumbar support on the seat and thought I’d done it when I found the appropriate button on the controller on the side of the seat, but when all it did was direct me back to the central touchscreen I decided I couldn’t be bothered. There were a few other niggles too: step-off performance at junctions is too lazy and even after all the delays there was still a slight occasional rattle from somewhere at the back of the car, while on a couple of occasions the driver seat back moved as if something was loose.

Is this a car to recommend? The usual EV concerns remain: I drove the car for over three hours, completing 137 miles at an average of just over 45mph. Some of it was sitting in heavy traffic, some on the Interstate at the same 85mph everyone else seems to do these days and a decent chunk going up and down a mountain road. It averaged 1.6 miles per kilowatt hour of electricity, which given the battery has 107kWh (usable) at its disposal suggests a range of around 170 miles. Without the mountain and the need to fling it at a few bends, I’d reckon you might get another 100 miles out of in more normal use, but still some distance from the claimed and clearly unachievable 381 miles.

If that doesn’t trouble you, this is a really good car. It’s spacious – though six-footers won’t thank you for putting them in the third row to which access is difficult and awkward – very comfortable and spookily quiet. It’s a very restful car in which to do a distance and while its flaws are annoying, none of them is what I’d call a deal breaker.

In short I liked it far more than I thought I might, and Land Rover should take notice that there is some proper competition here. But even if I wanted to buy one, I wouldn’t. Not just yet at least. The delays, the missing feature content and the odd rattle suggest that even now, the car is not quite finished. Yes, the absentee software will be uploadable over-the-air at some unspecified time in the future, but I’d still be inclined to wait until the car was fully on sale with all niggles ironed out before taking the plunge. For now though, impressive though it is, the EX90 remains work in progress. The finished item should be better still.

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