Volvo ES90 review praises tech

Volvo’s ES90 is an electric luxury car, but the thing reviewers keep circling back to isn’t the motor or the sheetmetal. It’s the tech stack. The first wave of proper drives has landed, and the broad read is pretty consistent: the ES90 feels like Volvo’s clearest attempt yet to turn a premium car into a rolling software platform — with all the promise and all the risk that comes with that. ### What is the ES90, exactly? It’s Volvo’s new fully electric flagship liftback-sedan thing — basically a big family EV that sits between classic saloon, fastback, and slightly raised crossover. Volvo itself leaned into that category-blurring pitch at launch, saying the car mixes sedan elegance, fastback practicality, and SUV-like space and ride height. That sounds like marketing fluff, but it does explain why the ES90 looks a little unusual next to a BMW i5 or Mercedes EQE. (volvocars.com) ### Why are people calling it a tech flagship? Because Volvo built the whole launch story around computing power and software. The ES90 is the first Volvo with a dual NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin setup, and Volvo says that makes it the most powerful car it has ever built in core computing terms. The car also rides on Volvo’s Superset tech stack — one shared hardware-and-software base meant to support future EVs and improve over time through over-the-air updates. (volvocars.com) ### What does that mean inside the car? In practice, reviewers are seeing a cabin dominated by screens, digital controls, and a very clean Scandinavian layout that feels expensive and modern. That’s the good part. The less good part is that Volvo still pushes too many basic functions into the central touchscreen. CAR flat-out called the ES90 “severely lacking buttons,” while other reviews praised the interior’s polish but worried about usability if you just want to do simple things quickly while driving. (volvocars.com) ### Is the hardware impressive beyond the infotainment? Yes — and this is where the ES90 starts sounding more serious than just “nice big screen.” Volvo gave it an 800V electrical architecture, which is a real competitive feature in this class. Volvo says the ES90 can add 300 km of range in 10 minutes at a 350 kW charger and reach up to 700 km on the WLTP cycle. Reviewers keep flagging that as one of the car’s strongest on-paper advantages over rivals. (carmagazine.co.uk) ### So are the reviews actually glowing? They’re positive, but not blindly so. Autocar liked the comfort, practicality, long wheelbase, and ambitious positioning, but stopped short of calling it a class leader. Top Gear was warmer on the design and refinement, yet still had a note of caution about whether the software foundation has really been sorted. That split is important — people seem to like the ES90’s direction more than they fully trust the execution just yet. (volvocars.com) ### Why is there so much caution around the software? Because Volvo’s recent high-end EV rollout hasn’t been perfectly smooth. The EX90 and Polestar 3, which share the broader SPA2 family, were both shadowed by software delays and feature issues. CAR explicitly brought that history into its ES90 review, arguing that Volvo still has to prove this platform is now mature rather than merely promising. Basically, the ES90 is arriving with better specs — but also with baggage. (autocar.co.uk) ### Has anything changed in the safety tech story? A bit. Early launch imagery made the roof-mounted lidar sensor a visual talking point, but Top Gear noted that Volvo ended its contract with Luminar in late 2025. Volvo’s line now is that the EX90 and ES90 still meet its safety standards with or without lidar, thanks to the broader sensor suite, driver monitoring, and core computing power. So the safety pitch remains central — just less tied to one visible hardware badge. (carmagazine.co.uk) ### Where does this leave the ES90? The ES90 looks like Volvo’s most convincing argument yet that it can compete at the sharp end of premium EVs without copying the Germans beat for beat. The cabin tech, charging hardware, and software-defined pitch are the headline. But the catch is simple — a tech flagship only feels flagship if the software disappears into the background and just works. That’s the part longer ownership, not launch-week reviews, will decide. (topgear.com) (volvocars.com)