The Volvo EX90 is another teaser closer to its reveal later this week, with the Swedish brand’s UK arm tweeting two very blurry images of the electric SUV’s headlight and headrest.
But this is just the latest of many teasers and snippets of information Volvo has given us about the upcoming EX90 seven-seater once every week or two.
For example, Volvo has been very vocal about its claims of an advanced lidar system it says is part of a suite of software and sensors that can “help reduce accidents that result in serious injury or death by up to 20 per cent”.
“Lidar is a remote sensing system that uses a pulsed laser to precisely measure ranges and it can detect, for example, pedestrians up to 250 metres away,” Volvo said, adding it can do this at speeds up to 120km/h.
The descriptions of its camera, radar, and lidar system that Volvo has provided so far give the impression that its safety system will be a holistic, Tesla-style integration of safety features rather than an itemised list of safety functions.
The array of sensors will, according to Volvo, “work together to create a 360-degree real-time view of the world”, rather than each individual element doing just one job.
Volvo head of design Jon Mayer called integrating lidar a “design challenge” in terms of balancing design and function. He said raising the lidar housing to the electric car’s roofline, rather than on the grille, provides a distinct advantage.
“It’s the car’s eyes, and while you could have them around the grille area – which would be equivalent to having eyes on your knees – it makes much more sense to have them as high as possible on your head so you can see as much as possible,” he said.
Volvo has also given the EX90 vehicle-to-grid (or V2G) charging capability, though Volvo calls it ‘bi-directional charging’, which intends to allow electric car owners to use their car to power their homes during peak electricity price times, as long as the car is sufficiently charged. The car can then recharge from the grid when prices are lower.
Continuing the ‘sustainability’ theme, Volvo says the EX90 has an unprecedented amount of “non-primary fossil-based materials” for a model in its lineup, specifically stating it’s leaving behind “bling” and animal leather.
“Created from textiles made from recycled material such as PET bottles, as well as bio-attributed material from responsibly-managed forests in Sweden and Finland, Nordico is a progressive and technically advanced material,” Volvo said.
“In addition to the recycled PET bottles, the Volvo EX90 consists of almost 50 kilograms of recycled plastics and bio-based materials.”
While keeping the interior environmentally friendly, Volvo is also aiming to simplify the experience from the driver’s seat – not only by streamlining the multimedia screen (in a similar fashion to previous Volvo models) but also by introducing more assisted driving and autonomous elements to the EX90.
“The Volvo EX90 will be hardware-ready for unsupervised autonomous driving, meaning that in the future the car can ultimately be able to drive for you,” Volvo said.
It will use an interface that, like a Tesla, shows the driver what the car can sense around it and provide information about its autonomous driving to prevent surprises.
In terms of its specification, Volvo has provided very little, even its range is yet to be hinted at, but we do know it will be built on Volvo’s new ‘skateboard-style’ electric car platform, moving on from the previous ‘Scalable Product Architecture’ (SPA) that most of its current range is built on.
The only figure Volvo has provided in terms of its efficiency is a very specific one, but important nonetheless, that being its quite impressive (for a seven-seat SUV) drag coefficient of 0.29. That’s about the same as the smaller Hyundai Ioniq 5.
When the Volvo EX90 arrives in Australia – expect to be waiting until later in 2024 – it will almost certainly be more expensive than the current XC90 range, currently starting at $92,990 before on-roads and topping out at $121,990 for the plug-in hybrid variant.
Given pricing for similarly sized electric SUVs like the BMW iX (from $135,900), Audi e-Tron (from $138,323), and Jaguar I-Pace (from $146,857), expect to see that sub-$100,000 entry point for Volvo’s flagship SUV disappear.
The Volvo EX90 will be revealed globally later this week, with Australian availability, pricing, and specification to be revealed in the future, closer to its local launch.
Keyword: Volvo has teased more of its incoming EX90 electric SUV, so here's the story so far