Volvo’s svelte ES90 fastback plays the long game

The global EV market in early 2025 is not short of premium-priced, executive-sized cars – especially saloons – so Volvo made a wise decision to design its first non-SUV EV as a fastback, a shape and segment currently somewhat under-represented.

The smart and (mainly) sleek five-metre-long car follows current Volvo electric design cues. That means horizontally aligned, capital T-shaped ‘Thor’s hammer’ front lights, a ‘closed mouth’ front face and simple but elegant exterior surfacing with a relatively low, circa 1.5-metre, roofline sloping downwards towards the rear hatch. The long 3.1-metre wheelbase allows space for a large cabin – which is especially roomy when sitting in the individually reclinable rear seats – while the interior aesthetic remains close to its bigger EX90 SUV, which could be loosely described as ‘Scandinavian mellow’.

Launched in a colour palette of beiges and greys, with wool, leather and light wood options, the inside of the ES90 is a great place to spend time. A long, one-piece electrochromic panoramic roof and awesome 25-speaker, 1610-watt Bowers & Wilkins sound system – confirmed at high volume with among others, the original Star Wars soundtrack and Banbarra’s Shack Up – both add to the interior ambience, while the advanced and independently-certified air purifier should boost how healthy you feel inside.

There’s a lot of fast computing behind the central portrait-shaped 14.5” user interface screen with an infotainment system powered by Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms and Qualcomm. Google Maps and Waze are embedded and Apple Car Play and Android Auto easily integrated. Regular ‘over the air’ software updates aim to ensure this currently modern software remains so over the lifetime of the car too.

At the global reveal, in the Artipelag modern art museum on a remote part of the Stockholm archipelago – within the same building as a late Coupé-badged version of the angular Marc Deschamps-designed, Bertone-built 1985 Volvo 780 – the new ES90 more than held its own. Presented on an upended pyramid plinth while Swedish electronica band Little Dragon entertained the assembled global media, it felt like a quietly cultural moment, not just another car launch.

First drives won’t happen for a while, but meantime Volvo has already announced a 435-mile (700km) range for its twin-motor all-wheel drive version fitted with a 106kWh battery, which should alleviate most users’ range anxiety. The ES90’s ability to re-charge more swiftly than any previous Volvo was also trumpeted. With some 180 miles bankable via an ultra-fast 350kW charger in ten minutes the 800-volt ES90 should be back on the road quickly. As befits the historically safety-led brand, Volvo offers a great deal of crash-avoidance and mitigation equipment on the ES90 – including its most advanced sensor suite yet – developed with the help of the marque’s own real-world accident data.

It’s an important aspect reflected in its visual design too. ‘One of the key signifiers on this car and which you will see in our future cars as well, is the idea of being ‘machined from solid’,’ Volvo’s head of global design, Jeremy Offer, explained to Wallpaper*. ‘The idea that the car not only is safe but has this visual metaphor for safety. Ideas around rational simplicity, pure intersecting volumes and removing ‘visual noise’ are really important for us too. There are so many vehicles on the road that exhibit aggressive undertones, but Volvo has never been about that. The ES90 speaks to a quiet intelligence that Volvo really exemplifies.’

Volvo isn’t a brand to lean too hard on performance figures, but nonetheless, the top-spec 680hp Twin-Motor Performance all-wheel drive (AWD) ES90 can still record a 0-62mph time of 4.0 seconds, which could be useful for getting out of trouble. The regular Twin-Motor AWD (0-62mph in 5.6 seconds) and Single-Motor rear-wheel drive (0-62mph in 6.9 seconds) are hardly slouches either and the latter model’s smaller 92kWh battery still boasts just over 400 miles of range.

Orders open this month with production due to start in late summer.

Volvo ES90, from £69,650, VolvoCars.com, @VolvoCars