Volvo EX90 review: the electric SUV for Soccer Moms

“Oh, I could get used to this.” I have just demonstrated the EX90’s massage seats to Jenn. “That is so good,” adds her friend Lex. It is the first occasion either has remained seated for long. They have explored every part of Volvo’s new electric SUV: the 34-litre frunk (“not big enough, I couldn’t get a cooler in there”), the rearmost seats (“I’d be happy here for a short journey”), and even the cupholders (“that’s all of them?! That is not enough. And they are too small for a sports cup”). Their overall verdict? “Y’know I wasn’t expecting it to be so big inside. It looks pretty small on the outside.” The EX90 measures more than five metres in length, although Lex drives a Ford Expedition.

Lex and Jenn are Soccer Moms. Is that patronising? Not at all, particularly at Orange County Soccer Club on a warm Saturday morning, as cheers and shouts from a children’s tournament carry across the neighbouring pitches. Here, the label is worn as a badge of honour.

Could either picture an EX90 on their own driveway? Lex has reservations: “If I had two kids maybe, but it’s just not big enough for my three.” Jenn uses a white Tesla Model Y to ferry her three children about and concedes that “is cramped in the back, your head’s all cranked over. I nearly switched to a Rivian SUV last year, but I love this. I think it would be perfect – if it had more cupholders – and the white seats look lovely now, but I couldn’t have them.”

Photography: Harry Rudd

The Soccer Moms have delivered their judgement. They are a worldwide tribe: the description may vary between countries, but the intended buyers are much the same. They are well-off middle-class families whose children attend clubs and sports, usually with mums doing the endless chauffeuring. For years, the safe, roomy, family-minded Volvo XC90 was their guiding light. The EX90 will probably face a tougher reception.

A taxi driver made this clear when I told him I had travelled to California to drive an all-electric Volvo XC90 alternative. “Oh, the Soccer Mom car? Y’know Volvo has some work to do, everyone out here drives a white Tesla now”. He had a point. Looking for Jenn’s Model Y in a car park is rather like locating a snowflake during a blizzard.

Volvo EX90 design and electric platform

The EX90 looks entirely at ease in Southern California. Its uncluttered profile and featureless nose carry a touch of Tesla’s anonymous futurism. More generously, you might say Volvo has given it the same pared-back design approach as Range Rover, with comparably effective results. It is clearly related to the XC90, while being unmistakably electric.

Volvo is playing both sides here. Resistance to electric cars has prompted the unveiling of a revised XC90, but it is nowhere near as contemporary as this. The EX90 uses the SPA2 architecture, which it shares solely with the Polestar 3. It is neither a reworked Chinese Geely underneath nor a Swedish interpretation of the Lotus Eletre, and it shares nothing with the hybrid XC90.

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The car here is the flagship Twin Motor Performance Ultra, the version that drew criticism for its price of more than £100,000. It ought to be the only model to do so. This specification brings 510bhp, 25 speakers, soft-close doors, an electric steering column and 22-inch wheels. Choosing 402bhp saves £4,300, while single-motor models and more modest trim grades will arrive later, hopefully lowering the EX90’s entry point towards £75k.

Have you noticed the taxi sign on its roof? That is not a styling reference to its inevitable role as the family shuttle, but the LiDAR unit, which can identify small items in the road hundreds of metres ahead in daylight or darkness. It forms part of an extensive sensor suite that lets Volvo describe this as the safest car it has made. More relevantly, the systems appear genuinely intelligent: they intervened only when required (sorry to the car I nearly sideswiped while joining the motorway), and there were relatively few annoying chimes, squeals and alerts. That is not something you can say about the Kia EV9, probably this car’s closest competitor.

EX90 cabin space, technology and practicality

Those sensors are balanced against the need to use them. Volvo has followed Tesla - and, frankly, almost every other manufacturer - by placing virtually every control inside the central touchscreen. That includes the climate controls, boot release, and adjustment for the door mirrors and steering wheel. Two switches control all four windows (infuriating), while your phone serves as the car key. A hotel-style key card is supplied as backup when the phone battery runs out. And nobody ever misplaces one of those, do they?

Its Android operating system is quick, the display is handsome and its layout makes sense. Yet it remains a touchscreen, demanding concentration for tasks that a physical button or switch would usually make instinctive. The removal of clutter has created a particularly appealing interior, with an easy-going yet stylish Scandinavian character. Materials feel good to the touch, and the design is relaxed but sophisticated. Build quality is exceptional, making it feel deserving of its considerable price. The seats are superb and use Nordico rather than leather, a synthetic, partly recycled material. Wool trim is optional. Yes, I am sure mashed banana will wash out of that beautifully.

No other family car combines atmosphere and usefulness as effectively as the EX90. As Lex discovered, it is one of those increasingly scarce cars that feels larger inside than it appears from outside. Its packaging is excellent and everything is simple to use. A flat floor, plus foot room beneath the front seats, contributes to outstanding legroom. Sliding and tilting the middle row takes one hand, as does folding it fully. There is a vast storage area below the boot floor, while seats six and seven retract electrically. Even when they are raised, there are 310 litres of luggage capacity.

In local language, that makes the EX90 a genuine ‘grocery getter’. Lex and Jenn also appreciated the useful tailgate graphic that indicates precisely what fits where. The answer is plenty, up to 1,915 litres. The front passenger seat can be folded, too. At least in Europe, I cannot think of another vehicle you would want to be seen in that treats practicality with such seriousness.

That matters, does it not? No concern for appearances? Buy a VW T7 Multivan and get on with it. But most people do care. Spend this sort of money and you want a car you can take pride in, one that says something about its owner. The XC90 has become slightly earnest with age. This feels newer, more assertive and more premium. It challenges everything from Tesla to Land Rover.

Driving the Volvo EX90

I drive into the hills surrounding San Mateo Peak. Nobody will hurl an EX90 down twisting roads for amusement, but it is enjoyable behind the wheel. It feels more manageable than its dimensions and mass suggest, and is principally precise without being demanding. It responds exactly as requested and stays composed; only once the road surface becomes truly poor does the air suspension begin to struggle and its weight become apparent.

Until then, ride quality is impressive: supple yet controlled. You can firm it up, certainly, once you have fought through the menus, but do not bother. Instead, tap Performance mode on the home screen. It sharpens the throttle response and activates the mechanical rear differential, making the EX90 more involved and alert through bends. It may not offer the all-out shove of a Tesla, but its strong acceleration is fully capable of moving its 2,787kg bulk weight.

8 minutes 43 seconds

Smoothness and quietness are the real reasons to be here, though, and I am not convinced anyone delivers them better. The drive motors are imperceptible unless you demand maximum output, complemented by one of the most thoroughly isolated cabins I have encountered. So little sound or vibration enters, including from the suspension, that cruising along Interstates is effortless and entirely free of strain. Lift off the accelerator and it simply continues, with its momentum barely interrupted.

Using the driver-assistance systems actually makes things more tense, because the steering is slightly snatchy, so take charge yourself. This is effortless wafting with Range Rover-grade comfort: driving does not consume your attention, leaving more mental capacity for whatever is happening in the rear seats. Should that prove too much, activate the massage seats and let the 25 Bowers & Wilkins speakers drown them out.

Laguna Beach contains a small network of narrow European-style streets, and the EX90 is comfortable there too. It is undeniably large, at 5,037mm long and 2,039mm wide with its mirrors folded. Two factors ease the urban challenge: excellent visibility in every direction, paired with a driving position that places you exactly where you need to be, and low-speed throttle calibration that makes smooth crawling simple. Its turning circle is decent as well. In warm everyday use, we averaged 2.8mpkWh - exactly 300 miles of range from the 107kWh battery, compared with its 374-mile WLTP claim. In the UK, expect 250–280 miles. That is sufficient, but be cautious when ski-holiday season arrives.

The EX90 is a blend of Volvo mentality and Tesla mindset

This is a considerably more refined car than we have come to expect from Volvo, a brand that has often paired thoughtful design with awkward, brittle driving dynamics. It is as sophisticated on the road as it is to look at. Even the screens are not overly disruptive. The EX90 has been created with a sharply defined understanding of what it should be and how it ought to behave. Set it against almost any other electric SUV: Audi’s Q8 e-tron, the Polestar 3, BMW iX and, in particular, Mercedes’ EQE SUV are all premium SUVs in search of a purpose. This one knows precisely what it is for.

I doubt any of those cars occupied a central place in Volvo’s thinking during development. The EX90 combines Volvo sensibilities with a Tesla outlook. It seems directly targeted at Model X and Model Y owners such as Soccer Mom Jenn. If Orange County’s football pitches decide that the EX90 is the car to own, expect a European revival. Just do not expect them to call it football.