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The Volvo ES90 is a large executive saloon/fastback/crossover offering an extremely comfortable driving experience and a practical electric range.
Volvo has been owned by the Chinese car company Geely since 2010 and there has been considerable subsequent development of the brand’s cars in areas ranging from design to electric platforms. The ES90 electric saloon is now here; is this now a more credible alternative to German brands such as BMW and Mercedes?
The Volvo ES90 looks very stylish, with its saloon/fastback/crossover body style sitting on large 21-inch wheels. The ES90 measures exactly 5,000mm in length, resulting in lots of space inside, including huge amounts of rear legroom. The boot offers 424 litres of space (to the top of the seat), 446 litres to the roof, and 1,427 litres with the rear seats folded. There’s also a 22-litre frunk under the bonnet for cable storage (and a small space under the boot floor).
The ES90 shares its 800V platform with the Volvo EX90 electric SUV and the Polestar 3. Our ES90 Single Motor Extended Range RWD Ultra test car featured a 92 kWh battery with 88 kWh usable capacity.
The Volvo ES90 driving experience is extremely comfortable, with excellent ride quality thanks to the air suspension (despite the large 21-inch wheels) and impressive refinement creating a calming, zen-like driving experience. This focus on comfort is reflected by the drive mode choices of ‘Standard’ or ‘Off-road’ only, whereas most of the ES90’s main rivals have a Sport option. However driving the ES90 will leave you in such a relaxed state that you won’t feel the need for a performance-focused drive mode option (333 hp and a 0-62 mph acceleration time of 6.6 seconds provides sufficient get up and go even in Standard mode).
Rivals aim to offer sporty handling as well as a comfortable driving experience, but the Volvo is primarily just focused on the comfort angle. The ES90 is rear-wheel drive, so the handling is ultimately more rewarding than a front-wheel drive layout (although with a kerb weight of 2,410 kg the ES90 can’t be described as agile). This is a car that is ideal for long motorway journeys, when it’s very quiet, apart from the large tyres occasionally creating some noise on certain road surfaces.
The interior is luxurious but also as minimalistic as you would expect in a Volvo from a Chinese car company. There’s a 9-inch driver display and a head-up display, but it’s the 14.5-inch central touchscreen which is needed to access all car controls. And yes, this is for ALL controls, including the adjustment of items such as the steering wheel and the door mirrors, even though physical controls for these items are much more user-friendly, especially when driving.
The driver’s seat actually does have a physical control, but there’s just one controller for all movements, which isn’t as effective as having separate controls for the seat base and the backrest.
You only get a very narrow view through the rear window via the rear view mirror; dropping down the middle rear seat into a central armrest helps to open up more visibility.
The ES90 doesn’t have a traditional key with buttons to lock and unlock the car. Instead it has a keycard, which is supposed to unlock and lock the car automatically when you approach and leave the car. This didn’t work consistently during the week that we had the car, leaving you with no confidence that the car could be opened or locked. There seems to be an obsession with Chinese manufacturers to eradicate all physical buttons associated with cars, but this really has gone too far when you don’t have buttons on a key to unlock or lock a car.
The Volvo ES90 Single Motor Extended Range RWD Ultra, with its 92 kWh battery, has an official WLTP combined electric driving range of 398 miles. During our week with the car the real-world range averaged 340 miles. Consumption (WLTP) is 3.9 miles/kWh. In Plus trim, the ES90 can manage up to 412 miles of range. Twin Motor models can cover up to 432 miles on one charge thanks to their larger 106 kWh battery.
The ES90’s 800V electrical platform is capable of a maximum ultra-rapid DC charging rate of 310 kW, giving the potential to deliver a 10% to 80% charge in 22 minutes. AC 11 kW charging from 0% to 100% takes 10 hours.
The ES90 has Vehicle-to-Grid and Vehicle-to-Home bi-directional capabilities.
The Volvo ES90 is available in two trim levels, and with three powertrains. The ES90 Single Motor Extended Range RWD Plus is priced from £67,560 and ES90 Single Motor Extended Range RWD Ultra prices are from £77,260. Twin Motor AWD models are priced from £81,460 and the Twin Motor Performance AWD costs from £86,060.
Our test car had the option of Aurora Silver paint (£845).
Every ES90 includes a Bose Premium Audio System, a 14-speaker sound system with Centerpoint 360 Surround Sound and 4x USB Type C sockets, as well as Safe Space Technology featuring long-range front-facing radar, front and rear corner radars, front-facing camera and side camera sensors.
You need to opt for Ultra trim to get air suspension.
The Volvo ES90 saloon/fastback/crossover looks impressive and the interior is upmarket (but minimalistic) and also spacious, with a practical hatchback. It delivers extremely comfortable ride quality and an incredibly calm driving experience. It also has a long official range of over 400 miles for some models, and ultra-rapid DC charging speeds of up to 310 kW. Overall it’s a very capable and desirable car – but it comes at a price. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t come with a key with lock and unlock buttons, because its keycard gave us little confidence that we could lock or unlock the car reliably. Assuming that’s a software-related issue that can be fixed, the Volvo ES90 is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 9 out of 10.
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