2025 (75) Volvo EX90 380kW Twin Motor Performance Ultra 111kWh 5dr Auto

By Jonathan Crouch

Introduction

The EX90 was the large full-battery EV Crossover that back in 2022 took Volvo into a new era. As the company put it at this car's launch, 'it's a statement for where we are - and where we're going', combining the brand's own engineering advances with 'the best technology from the world's best technologists'. This SUV was also one of the few large super-luxury EVs to be able to seat seven. It was an ambitious statement of intent from the Sino-Swedish brand but had its fair share of issues in this initial 2022-2025-era 400V form, so used customers will have to choose carefully.

History

What does the future really look like for large luxury cars? Various brands have told us, but none of them approached that future quite like Volvo, the company proudly styling itself as 'a pioneer in the protection of people and planet'. A claim that was embodied most clearly in this, it's very first EV to sit on a dedicated electric platform, the EX90, launched in 2022. This was originally intended to be the replacement for the XC90 large SUV model line that saved Volvo at the turn-of-the-century, though slow EV market take-up meant that this combustion model continued on after the launch of the EX90. The future for flagship Volvos though, the brand told us back in 2022, lay with EVs produced off the parent Geely Group's advanced SPA2 architecture, a platform that at the time was already being used by the EX90's close cousin, the Polestar 3, which shared the same drive system and much else. The EX90 differed from that car though, by its provision of three seating rows. And in its standard (rather than optional) inclusion of the so-called 'Lidar' package of sensors and cameras that Volvo claimed would deliver a whole new era of safety and pave the way to a safer solution for fully autonomous driving. The car was initially offered with an older-tech 400V electrical infrastructure and was built at the company's US plant in Charleston - and at Chengdu in China too, with both plants rated carbon neutral. In mid-2025, new battery tech, more power and an 800V faster-charging electrical infrastructure was introduced, but it's the early 2022-2025-era 400V EX90 models we look at here.

What You Get

As you might expect, the EX90 sought to take established Volvo EV styling cues and apply them to a car significantly larger and more sophisticated. Much was borrowed from the 'Concept Recharge' study that the brand had showed in 2021, with elements of Range Rover in the upright rear lights. At 5,037mm long, the EX90's not far off the size of one of those, a fraction longer, wider and lower than the combustion XC90. A prominent 'Lidar sensor' sits on the leading edge of the roof, looking like an off-duty taxi light but actually housing a bewildering array of cameras and sensors. Up-front at the wheel, minimalism takes over. Just about all the switchgear was replaced by a Tesla-like 14.5-inch central portrait touchscreen. It runs at two and a half times the speed of the one in the XC90 and has all the major controls along its bottom bar. Materials used mirror Volvo's usual Scandinavian vibe, with jewel-like detailing and a 3D rotary controller sitting almost alone on the lower centre console. There's no conventional instrument binnacle - just a letterbox-shaped digital screen: and the lever-style gear selector is mounted on the steering column. Much of the interior functionality is based around the owner's profile. Once that's been set up, your EX90 will know in advance things like your preferred temperature and control settings - and will greet you with a light sequence as you approach. Unlike its close cousin the Polestar 3, this Volvo is a seven-seater - a proper one nearly big enough for adults in the third row (unlike Tesla's rival Model X). The middle row bench does all the usual slidey-foldy things. And there's a reasonably-sized 655-litre boot, provided you can fold the third row seating. If you can't, there's 310-litres of space on offer: it's 1,915-litres with everything folded.

What to Look For

You'll have to be quite careful buying one of these rare earlier 400V EX90 models because Volvo took some time to get this car absolutely right. To begin with, there were widespread software glitches that included blacked-out infotainment screens, failed over-the-air updates and issues with the climate controls. We've also heard of inconsistent digital key functionality, parking brake problems and inoperable rear climate controls. Check all these things carefully. Other owners complained of rattles, a faulty tailgate drive unit and malfunctioning electronic third row folding seats. If the car won't charge, it could be a problem with your home electrics (or those at the public charge point you're using). Check the charge light to make sure that electricity really is going through the charge port. And make sure there really is charge in the socket you're using to power from - plug something else into it to see - say, your 'phone. If that charges OK, it could be that your charging cable is demanding too much power, so try another power source. Another problem could be that the circuit may have tripped due to a circuit overload. Or perhaps there could be a problem with the charge cable: this needs to be cared for properly. Repeatedly driving over it (as previous owners may conceivably have done) will damage it eventually. Make sure you do a charge-up before signing for the car you're looking at. When you do this, make sure that when you plug in to start the charge cycle you hear the charge port and the cable locking and engaging as they should; that's all part of the charger basically confirming with the car's onboard computer that everything's good to go before releasing power. But if the charging cable fails to lock as it should, then that won't happen. If there is a failure to lock, the issue could be actuator failure, caused by a blown fuse. Otherwise, it's just the usual things; look out for stone chips and alloy wheel scratches. And insist on a fully stamped-up service history.

Replacement Parts

(approx based on a 2023 EX90 Twin Motor ex VAT - autodic.co.uk) A wiper blade will cost you from about £5 to around £26. A rear shock absorber sits in the £100-£137 bracket. An air filter is around £11-£38. A headlamp insert is in the £221-£279 bracket. A pollen filter's in the £19-£35 bracket.

On the Road

The powertrain on offer to early EX90 buyers was of the Twin Motor All-Wheel Drive sort, with a choice of two output levels with this early 400V model. Standard versions offered 402bhp, while 'Performance' variants upped that to 510bhp. In both cases, power comes from a 111kWh battery, which delivers a range of 364 miles in the base model and 360 miles in the 'Performance' version. As with all Volvos from this era, top speed is limited to 112mph. The 62mph from rest sprint takes 5.9s in the base Twin Motor model, improved to 4.9s by the 'Performance' version. All of this by 2022 we'd seen before in the Polestar 3. The EX90 though, got a standard feature that was only optional on that car, the 'Lidar sensor'. That gives you a combination of powerful silicon chips, sensors and Volvo-developed perception software so powerful that the brand refers to it as 'a digital seatbelt'. And promises it'll reduce accidents involving death and serious injury by 20%. The Lidar sensor was also supposed to provide everything necessary for this Volvo to drive itself fully autonomously, as soon as worldwide legislation permitted it. By 2022, we'd heard that before of course, but Volvo wasn't sure that earlier autonomous drive systems could match its exacting safety standards. So it developed its own autonomous drive set-up, with a completely new level of hardware, software and processing power; including Nvidia processors and Qualcomm CPUs combining to process up to 280 trillion operations per second. Forget performance figures: these are the kinds of stats that are really going to matter in luxury cars going forward. This one sought to nail them more directly than any rival had done to date. Volvo claimed that the battery could be charged at 250kW, which makes possible a 10-80% charge in around half an hour.

Overall

For Volvo, this EX90 wasn't just a new model. It represented the start of a new era. CEO of the time Jim Rowan described it as 'a defining moment in our 95 year history'. On the face of things back in 2022, the brand was simply replicating the rest of the industry in its switch to EV and its move towards fully autonomous driving. The transition here though, seemed a little different. Volvo wasn't simply adding batteries and camera tech to ongoing designs: it was re-inventing its whole product development approach around the fresh technology. Something very evident in this EX90. There were many issues with this early 400V version of this car and you'll have to choose carefully. But those who want to carry seven in a full-EV that isn't a People Carrier don't have many more credible options than this from the 2022-2025 era. And in this Volvo, they might find that unique selling point packaged up in a very complete proposition indeed.