I drove ‘EV Car of the Year’ that’s rivalling BMW, Audi and Porsche but found problem
Christopher traveled to the Cotswolds to review a Volvo ES90 (Image: Christopher Sharp)
To electrify or not to electrify, that is the question. And it’s not just a public thing, because so are manufacturers, even though oil prices have skyrocketed after the ongoing war in Iran and many people are hesitant to dive into electric life.
In recent months we have seen companies such as Ford, Lotus and Porsche become increasingly hesitant about going fully electric. With this in mind, launching an electric car is also an obvious and bold choice, especially when it costs around £80,000 and there’s barely a button in sight inside. I’ll get into this later, because before we get into the buttons pushing and pushing, it’s important to introduce the Volvo ES90 to the UK. The new vehicle has already received critical acclaim, winning the Gentleman’s Journal Car Awards 2026. So what’s it really like?
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ES90 is Volvo’s newest electric car (Image: Christopher Sharp)
Features
Attending the launch event near Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds, there was a clear attempt to link the car to Volvo’s prestigious past, with the 1990s S90 sedan standing resplendent in maroon outside the Hyll Hotel, where we stayed for a night and a morning.
What about ES90? In bare stats, the car I tested with was the single-motor rear-wheel-drive version with 333 hp, 480 Nm of torque in old money, 0.62 in 6.6 seconds and a 10 to 80 per cent battery charging time of 22 minutes with a powerful 310kW charger.
In addition, there is a luggage volume of 424 liters with the rear seats open and 733 liters with them down. The car we tested was priced at £78,105 and came in a creamy-looking color called Sand Dune.
Volvo interior (Image: Christopher Sharp)
Interior – Front
The first thing you should notice when you step inside is that there are almost no buttons inside, other than the tiny one on the steering wheel. Given the automotive industry’s recent trend of reintroducing these, Volvo told us that pretty much everything is done via the vertical touchscreen in the center of the car.
It’s not the worst or slowest system I’ve used, but it’s not the most intuitive either. You’ll eventually get used to it, but some of it is a bit overkill, like needing to go into a submenu to open the glovebox.
Many times you wonder where there isn’t a button-based shortcut you can press to go from CarPlay to the radio or manual controls for the air conditioning. A small row of buttons will definitely be on the wish list for any future makeover.
It’s not all doom and gloom, as the ES90 is pleasant to sit in. The seats suck in and hold you, while the steering wheel goes against modern trends and is refreshingly thin. Next to the seats are two pillows to accommodate two phones and a cooled center compartment next to a couple of USB-C chargers. The materials feel premium and high-quality in all the important places. Sounds like a £70,000 plus motor vehicle.
Volvo’s back seats (Image: Christopher Sharp)
Interior – Rear
As long as you are not above a certain height, everything is fine in the back. There’s plenty of room for people over 6 feet tall, but if the person in front of them is the same height, their legs will be raised slightly.
If there’s just two of you, there’s an accessible set of central cupholders that fold between you behind the central seat. This feature, which also includes slots for your phones, seems like a good idea until you lift it up and see that the central headrest blocks rear visibility.
driving
It’s easy to forget the inconveniences caused by the touchscreen when you’re on the road. Refreshingly, as mentioned earlier, Volvo doesn’t act like an apex chaser, so it doesn’t drive that way. Even if you set the suspension and steering to the sportiest settings, it never feels overly harsh.
You don’t simply move an ES90, you drift through it with smooth inputs resulting in overall outputs. Like most electric cars above a certain power, there’s a slight push as you accelerate, but not much more.
But still, it weighs over two tonnes, which has something to do with it, and you notice it over bumps and some corners. Technology hasn’t yet reached the point where a two-ton electric vehicle doesn’t feel like it’s fighting the laws of physics.
Christopher had a great time at Volvo (Image: Christopher Sharp)
As in the BMW i4, you can feel the engineering brainpower fighting against what the weight is trying to do. Like the BMW iX3, the ES90 manages to keep two tons of electricity on the road with a different style.
Does this mean Volvo is upset? On the contrary, the ES90 coped incredibly well with Britain’s increasingly pitted roles. The driving experience reminded me of my brief time with the Rolls Royce a few weeks ago, and knowing how it wanted to be driven, it was overall a very enjoyable driving experience; although the lack of rear visibility makes the rearview mirror feel a little unnecessary at times.
What’s more, there was no problem with smart regenerative braking, in which the car sends electricity back to the battery via the brakes. Volvo told us that the ES90 is a car that learns its driver and driving style and adjusts some of its programs accordingly; even if the brakes themselves leave a little to be desired. They had a lot of feelings, but during the first depression they bit less than I would have liked.
Solution
Volvo is entering a difficult market at an ironic time because, although people are more likely to buy electric cars, the impact of the war in Iran on the cost of living means they will spend less money on buying a car.
That’s not to say the ES90 was the right car at the wrong time; it’s just a car released at an interesting moment. Overall, the Volvo is a great car to drive, with only some minor annoyances keeping it from getting full marks.
Christopher’s Verdict: 8/10
