2024 Volvo EX90: electric SUV a work in progress?

Here is a car that should make sense as an EV. With zero sporting intent, it matters less that it is heavy and more that it is quiet, which it is, eerily so. It’s not a hardcore SUV so its towing limit of 2200kg is probably enough and the packaging advantages of EV design should provide a fabulously roomy and spacious interior.

And were the car actually finished, I’d have been impressed. The cabin is an elegant Swedish delight. All bar third row passengers will have all the room they could want. It is Rolls-Royce refined (literally) and rides beautifully. Its handling is assured and stable, its performance more than adequate and its range and charging speed are competitive with similar cars.

But it’s not finished. Despite first being shown in 2022 and then delayed, first customers will have cars delivered with no lidar long-distance radar, no smart charging capacity at home, no plug and charge (where the charging station bills automatically), no alert of traffic crossing in front, no cruise control ability to slow the car in curves and no CarPlay. Only the last of these would actually bother me, but the car I drove was by no means fault free (it had a rattle and the driver’s seat back at times felt loose), and if I’d dropped a hundred grand on one, that would bother me a great deal.

There’s a decent car trying to get out here, but it’s not there yet and were I in the market, I’d wait until I was sure it was. AF

Volvo EX90

• Price £100,555
• Engine Front and rear electric motors, 111kWh battery
• Power 510bhp
• Torque 671lb ft
• Weight 2712kg
• Transmission Single-speed, four-wheel drive
• 0-60mph 4.9sec
• Top speed 112mph (limited)
• Range 381 miles (WLTP)
• Charging speed Up to 250kW
• Verdict Far from the polished product.