New Volvo ES90 electric saloon to get enormous 435-mile range

The new Volvo ES90 electric saloon will be revealed in less than a week, on 5 March. However, the brand can’t seem to contain its excitement, and has confirmed the BMW i5 rival will boast up to 435 miles of range and the fastest charging speeds of any Volvo EV, thanks to new 800-volt technology.

Volvo claims drivers will be able to add 186 miles of range in just 10 minutes, or from 10 to 80 per cent in 20 minutes, if they use an ultra-rapid 350kW charging point – more and more of which are cropping up at UK service stations and electric forecourts.

The ES90 will sit on the same SPA2 platform as Volvo’s EX90 flagship SUV that arrived last year, but its seven-seater sibling only has a 400-volt architecture. That meant Volvo had to upgrade every component in the electric system for the new saloon, from the battery cells and electric motors, to the climate and thermal management systems.

The ES90 will also benefit from lighter e-motors and other parts, which will not only reduce the car’s weight, but also offer improvements to the car’s efficiency, acceleration and range.

If that wasn’t enough, Volvo has also shared yet more darkened teaser images of the ES90. These latest ones reveal the rear lighting design is very similar to the EX90’s, with large C-shaped tail-lights extending onto the bootlid and another set of lights embedded in the rear windscreen, both sets with a distinctive segmented pattern.

Other images show the ES90 will have a sleek profile, a steeply raked windscreen and a sloped, fastback-style roofline. It also looks like this will be a particularly long car, but that’s no surprise, given that the petrol, diesel and hybrid-powered S90 (no longer sold in the UK) is nearly five metres long.

We can also make out a small nodule at the top of the windscreen, which indicates the ES90 will feature the same LiDAR technology found on the EX90.

We can’t decipher much more from the various teaser pictures, but our exclusive images preview how the new model could look. It uses a similar design language and flush front end to Volvo’s existing electric models, and we expect the ES90 to also inherit a bold set of ‘Thor’s Hammer’ LED lights and sharp detailing.

The ES90 name follows the convention that began with the EX90 and EX30 electric SUVs. It denotes that Volvo’s next EV will be the zero-emissions replacement for the S90 saloon mentioned earlier. However, due to the new model’s electric-specific architecture, we can expect space in the back seats of the ES90 to surpass that offered in its predecessor – allowing greater scope for that sloping, more aerodynamic roofline.

How big will the Volvo ES90's battery be?

We can look to the saloon’s SUV sibling for battery and motor configurations. That means the ES90 will probably be launched with a single 107kWh battery, and dual motors for all-wheel drive. 

Volvo has said the ES90 will be a “software-defined car” that is designed to “continuously evolve and improve through core computing technology, constant connectivity and data”. It will use a ‘dual NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin configuration’ – apparently making it the most powerful Volvo ever built in terms of core computing capability. 

Its new supercomputer will allow the ES90 to “continuously evolve and improve over time”, we’ve been told, and can make 508 trillion operations per second.

Potential Volvo ES90 rivals

As well as the BMW i5, rivals for the ES90 will include the new Audi A6 e-tron and Mercedes EQE. Expect a raft of Chinese brands to benchmark the Volvo; Nio, for example, has bold plans for Europe based upon its innovative battery-swap tech.

An estate version of the ES90 – presumably called EV90 – could join the range later, offering all the same specs but with a bigger, more family-friendly boot.

While the S90 is no longer sold in the UK, a spokesperson said availability for the new saloon would depend on “local market conditions” and “market desire” – refusing to state if we’d also be denied the ES90 when production starts later this year.

Elsewhere, Volvo remains committed to an all-electric future, despite recently adjusting its EV-only deadline by confirming it will continue to sell hybrid models beyond 2030. It says “90 to 100 per cent” of its cars will be electrified by the end of the decade.

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