[Correction: This article has been updated. The article originally states the EX90 would replace the XC90. After publishing we were informed the XC90 will be sold alongside the EX90 for the foreseeable future. It contains the corrected information.]
The XC90 has long held the title of Volvo’s SUV flagship, but its reign is coming to an end. In its place comes the all-new all-electric 2024 Volvo EX90. It carries with it the XC90’s general principles of safety, space and Scandinavian luxury, but adds a new all-electric powertrain to the mix. It’s Volvo’s new SUV flagship as the brand transitions to a fully electric future, and while the XC90 will be sold alongside it for the foreseeable future, the EX90 sets the tone for what we can expect from Volvo in the years to come does.
This is an early glimpse of the EX90, with more details to come later. The EX90 will initially be available in a two-motor, all-wheel-drive configuration—that means one motor in the front and one in the rear. Those motors will be drawn from a 111-kWh battery pack and generate 496 horsepower and 671 lb-ft of torque. There will also be an E2 trim that will deliver 402 hp and 568 lb-ft. As for range, Volvo says the EX-90 will travel up to 300 miles on a single charge. It also says that the EX90 can go from 10% to 80% charge state in less than 30 minutes.
Being a Volvo, safety is first and foremost. The EX90 casts an invisible mesh of what’s inside and outside the car and its occupants via an array of cameras, radar and lidar sensors. Together, the systems create a “real-time, 360-degree view of the world” that the automaker says will help keep drivers and passengers out of trouble when they’re out on the road. As a result, Volvo says the EX90 is the safest car the company has ever made.
The array of sensors also helps prepare the EX90 for the advent of autonomous driving, and the automaker says that “the Volvo EX90 is the first Volvo that is hardware-ready for unsupervised driving in the future.” Volvo’s current Pilot Assist suite of driver assist tech is a solid start, but we’ve found that it needs a bit more refinement to be the class-leading system found in BMW and Mercedes-Benz products. Hopefully the additional sensors and processing power of the central brain provided by Nvidia will help Volvo reach the next level.
Other techniques abound as well. The EX90 will come with a 14.5-inch center screen that runs on a customized version of Google’s Android software. It’s very similar to the system found in existing Volvos, and while we’re pleased with its functionality, we found that on occasion the Volvo couldn’t keep up with the operating system’s demands. Volvo says the EX90’s system promises to be “lightning-fast.” It also offers the ability to use Apple CarPlay, so you can always bypass the default UI if you’re not a fan of Android.
The interior itself looks like a luxurious place in terms of materials and overall design, but we’re already lamenting the absence of physical buttons for most commands like climate control and volume adjustments. We hope Volvo finds an intuitive solution to screen-only operation, which we’ve found can sometimes be difficult and more difficult to do while driving. Button grabs aside, expect the interior to feel as luxurious as it looks.
The Volvo EX90 will be on sale here in the States by the end of next year, and Volvo says it will come well equipped for just under $80,000. We assume that means it will start around $78,000 and have a lot of standard niceties while omitting some luxurious options like the Bowers & Wilkins stereo system. When it eventually enters production, the EX90 will be built at Volvo’s plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina.