New Volvo EX60: mid-size electric SUV will use next-generation tech in fight against BMW and Audi

The all-new Volvo EX60 mid-size electric SUV is expected to be launched in 2026, and will serve as the zero-emissions alternative to the best-selling Volvo XC60, and will rival the Audi Q6 e-tron, Porsche Macan Electric and BMW’s hugely important new Neue Klasse SUV, among others.

Volvo has now confirmed the car’s name and revealed this will be the first model built on its next-generation SPA3 platform. This is an evolution of the EV architecture that underpins the Volvo EX90 flagship.

Volvo says SPA3 is a far more scalable architecture than its predecessor, which will allow the brand to develop and build cars of all sizes using the same technology. That includes, in theory, smaller models than the 4.2-metre-long EX30 and larger ones than the EX90, which is more than five metres in length.

Being scalable also means Volvo can create increased synergies and share key components across all cars built on SPA3, which reduces complexity and can help bring down the cost of production.

Another advancement that will set the EX60 apart from other electric Volvos will be its “structural” battery pack. This technology has already been adopted by the likes of Tesla and BYD, and in effect bonds the battery pack with the floor of the car. The result, the brand’s head of new car programmes and strategy, Erik Severinson, told Auto Express, is “improved energy density” and, given the extra structural rigidity, “great driveability”.

The EX90 uses a huge 107kWh (usable) battery pack that offers a range of 374 miles on a single charge. Given the EX60’s smaller size, we expect to see a slightly more compact, lighter battery fitted to top-spec models. The increased energy density of its structural battery pack could see range figures approaching the 400-mile mark, however.

The incorporation of this new kind of cell technology is thanks, in part, to the EX60’s megacasted rear underfloor. Unlike most cars, which have rear undercarriages constructed using a multitude of different parts, the EX60 will instead get a single unit that is cast out of aluminium.

We visited the factory in Gothenburg, Sweden, which will assemble the EX60’s megacasted floor. Basically following the same manufacturing processes used to build 1:64-scale model cars but greatly enlarged, megacasting is a relatively new concept in the automotive sphere. Tesla is the only other mainstream manufacturer currently adopting the method, along with several Chinese brands such as Nio, Zeekr and XPeng.

Volvo says the new rear floor weighs “15-20 per cent less” than a traditional stamped equivalent and that it offers “just as good, if not better safety and durability”.

There are other incidental benefits from the process, too, including an increased boot capacity and faster production times. A megacasted floor takes 120 seconds to build, compared with a full hour for a multi-piece stamped floor.

Plus, while Volvo’s production process currently uses 20 per cent recycled aluminium, the goal is to increase this figure and fully recycle the megacasted floor at the end of the car’s life.

The new Volvo EX60 will either be unveiled at the tail end of 2025, or in 2026 when the car is expected to go on sale. Arriving first is the Volvo ES90 electric saloon, which will make its world debut in March 2025 and should hit the streets later that year.

But in the meantime, our exclusive image shows what the new EX60 could look like. It will probably carry over several design elements from both the EX30 and EX90, such as their eight-bit-style Thor’s-hammer LED headlights, flush door handles, a blanked-off grille and aerodynamic alloy wheels.

Volvo hasn’t confirmed whether the advanced LiDAR driver-assistance tech found on the EX90 will filter down to ‘lesser’ models, such as the forthcoming EX60, but Severinson did tell us that the brand is experimenting with “different kinds of [safety] sensors going forward”.

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