I have a soft spot for big Volvos. For a while, I ran a Volvo S80 with more than 700,000 miles on the clock, which is the sort of number you usually see on a commercial vehicle or a moon mission. It was gloriously comfortable, quietly indestructible and exactly the kind of car that explained why Volvo owners tend to become repeat Volvo owners.
The new Volvo ES90 is a very different thing. It’s fully electric, highly digital and shaped somewhere between a traditional executive saloon, a fastback and a mildly elevated grand tourer. Yet, in one crucial respect, it still feels properly Volvo: it majors on calm.
Volvo ES90 pros
+ Exceptionally quiet and refined
+ Beautifully calm, premium cabin
+ Long range and rapid charging potential
Volvo ES90 cons
– Too many basic controls buried in the touchscreen
– Rear visibility is laughably poor
– Rear-seat comfort isn’t as good as the tape measure suggests
I drove the ES90 Plus in Single Motor Extended Range form, which is the entry point into the UK range, though “entry point” feels somewhat absurd at a price that’s nudging £68,000. For that, you get rear-wheel drive, a large battery, a claimed range of a little over 400 miles and an equipment list that makes the Plus badge feel modest.
There are faster, more powerful ES90s, including Twin Motor and Performance versions, but I’m not convinced this car needs them. The 333hp Single Motor model already feels more than quick enough, with smooth, easy acceleration — it hits 62mph in just 6.6 seconds — and enough power to make overtaking entirely stress-free. More importantly, it suits the character of the car.
The ES90 isn’t a sports saloon, and doesn’t offer the same level of engagement as something like a BMW i5. It’s a more serene way of covering distance, and might be the quietest car I’ve driven this side of a Rolls-Royce. That sounds like hyperbole, but the absence of noise is extraordinary. Road roar, wind noise and general outside-world irritations all seem to have been edited out. At 40-50mph, which was sadly where much of our test route kept us, the ES90 felt eerily hushed.
That route was not ideal. There was little chance to explore the car dynamically, beyond trundling along relatively straight roads at modest speeds, so any meaningful verdict on its handling limits will have to wait. It felt composed, unflustered and entirely comfortable, but this was not a route that invited a deep dive into steering balance, grip levels or chassis adjustability. Volvo probably won’t mind. The ES90’s natural habitat feels more like a motorway than a mountain pass.
The ride, even on the Plus model’s standard suspension, was impressive. This is a large, heavy electric car, but it does a fine job of keeping the cabin calm. It doesn’t have the floaty softness of old luxury cars, but it does have that modern electric-car smoothness, helped by the remarkable quietness. Surprisingly, there’s also an off-road mode, although quite why an executive electric Volvo fastback needs one remains an unanswered philosophical question.
Inside, the ES90 is exactly as you’d expect from a modern flagship Volvo. It’s Scandinavian minimalism done well, airy and beautifully judged. The seating position is slightly higher than you might expect from an executive saloon, giving the car a faintly SUV-like feel from behind the wheel, but the materials, cabin width and general sense of calm are all very convincing.
It’s a little more complicated in the back. At first glance, the legroom looks enormous, helped by the ES90’s long wheelbase and flat floor. The problem is that there’s no space beneath the front seats for your feet, so rear passengers can’t stretch out as naturally as the measurements suggest. Instead, you sit with your knees higher than expected, in a slightly perched position. It’s spacious, certainly, but not quite the limousine-like experience it initially appears to be.
Rear visibility is worse. The ES90’s sleek fastback shape might help its aerodynamics, but the view through the back window is laughably narrow — more slot than screen. It is so compromised that Volvo might almost have been better off following the Polestar 4 and deleting the rear window entirely in favour of a camera-based system. As it stands, the ES90 keeps the glass but loses much of the benefit.
Then we reach the technology. Volvo’s digital-first approach is still frustrating, and in some places, borderline ridiculous. The main touchscreen is sharp, neatly presented and powered by a Google-based operating system that generally works well, but too many basic functions have been swallowed by it. Adjusting the door mirrors through a screen is irritating. Adjusting the steering wheel through a screen is even more irritating. Having to use the screen to open the glovebox is just silly.
There’s a point at which minimalism stops feeling clean and starts feeling obstructive. The ES90 crosses that line more than once.
That’s a shame, because so much of the rest of the car is deeply appealing. The ES90 feels like a Volvo flagship should. It’s safe, refined, comfortable and quietly confident. It isn’t exciting, but I don’t think it needs to be. Its strength is the complete absence of drama.
The ES90 is a car for people who want to arrive less tired than when they left. It is a luxury car that understands the value of silence, comfort and restraint.
The old S80 I loved had more than 700,000 miles behind it and still knew how to soothe its driver. Despite being a few generations removed, ditching diesel for electric power, and benefiting from the seemingly infinite resources of parent company Geely, the ES90 is, in many ways, much the same. Beneath the batteries, screens and software, that same instinct remains. It’s not perfect, and Volvo urgently needs to rediscover the humble button, but as a quiet, comfortable and effortlessly refined electric executive car, the ES90 is very convincing indeed.
Volvo ES90 Plus: The CALIBRE verdict
The Volvo ES90 Plus is not a thrilling driver’s car, at least not from the limited route available, but it is a deeply impressive luxury EV. It’s extraordinarily quiet, beautifully calming, and well suited to long-distance travel. The Single Motor Extended Range model also feels like all the ES90 most buyers will realistically need.
It is not flawless. Rear-seat comfort is less natural than the vast legroom suggests, rear visibility is heavily compromised, and Volvo’s screen-first controls remain maddening. Yet the ES90 still feels like a proper modern Volvo flagship: understated, refined and unusually serene. It proves Volvo doesn’t need another SUV to make a persuasive modern flagship.
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