We adored the Volvo XC90. Can the electric EX90 manage to win us over during a yearlong test as well?
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The MotorTrend garage once housed a 2016 Volvo XC90 T6 AWD in the top-tier Inscription trim, and we were smitten. The clean aesthetics, natural walnut wood inserts, and tiny Swedish flags stitched into the Nappa leather seats. It felt premium and calming, contemporary yet comfortable, packed with all the safety technology Volvo is renowned for. You never felt unsafe, even on snowy and icy roads. That SUV had a way of soothing whoever was behind the wheel.
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A decade later, I’m sharing supervision duties for the 2026 Volvo EX90, another three-row vehicle from the Swedish manufacturer but with a key distinction: This one is a pure electric vehicle, and while we are thrilled to discover more about living with a powertrain that still symbolizes the future, I am also a bit scared, as I’ve never owned an electric SUV before. I often take long road trips through somewhat remote regions, and I’m about to find out just how good—or poor—the charging network is in Michigan, including the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula.
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Our new long-term EX90 is a six-passenger SUV equipped with twin front and rear motors (providing all-wheel drive), a 102-kWh lithium-ion battery, and shift-by-wire single-speed transmissions. The output: 670 horsepower and 642 lb-ft of torque, so this vehicle is no slouch. It also features one-pedal driving.
Volvos Have a Distinctive Appearance
The design is also fresh and contemporary. Our Ultra trim in Mulberry Red sits on 22-inch glossy black diamond-cut wheels and includes Thor’s Hammer LED headlights, an electrochromic panoramic roof that promises instant shading with a button press, and soft-close doors.
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Inside, our EX90 features lovely wool-blend cloth seats—still adorned with small Swedish flags—that create a fresh and airy atmosphere. The first two rows are heated, the front seats offer a massage function, and the third row has power-folding seats.
There is a new 14.5-inch center screen in addition to the 9.0-inch driver display. Previous Volvos have had infotainment systems that were slow to load and glitchy. Volvo now uses a dual Nvidia Drive AGX Orin-based core computer with an enormous amount of computing power. The hope is that the software issues that plagued Volvo in the past have been resolved.
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