Volvo is gearing up to launch the ES90 as its first electric saloon early next year – and it will serve as a premium flagship for the firm’s next wave of five advanced EV models.
The new BMW i5 and Mercedes-Benz EQE rival is a sibling model to the combustion-engined S90 and will be revealed next March at an event in Stockholm, Sweden. It has been developed with a focus on the Chinese market, although it will be sold worldwide.
The ES90 will be closely related to the EX90 electric SUV and, much like that model, will serve as a technological figurehead rather than a driver of sales volume.
It will be followed in 2026 by the new EX60, which will sit on a new-generation platform and, as the EV equivalent of the bestselling XC60 in the core medium SUV segment, will be key to growing Volvo’s electric car sales.
Volvo currently has three further EVs in development. The new platform beneath the EX60 will accommodate a wider range of bodystyles, potentially including an electric estate. And while Volvo is still focused on ultimately becoming an EV-only brand, it has delayed plans to end the sale of plug-in and mild-hybrid models and is instead set to refresh and renew its combustion-engined lineup in the coming years.
ES90 saloon to be new premium range-topper
The ES90 will be the fifth series-production electric Volvo model to be offered in the UK – following the EX30, XC40/EX40, C40/EC40 and EX90 – but the first that isn’t an SUV. (Volvo also offers the EM90 MPV in China.)
That reflects the current sales dominance of SUVs but, speaking recently, Volvo boss Jim Rowan said the firm will continue to offer a diverse line-up in future. “We have MPVs as well as sedans [saloons] and wagons and of course SUVs,” he said. “We’re in a nice position as a company that we have that spread.”
Rowan added that even though SUVs are likely to continue to make up the bulk of sales, there was enough profi t to justify launching an electric saloon. “We’re 1% of the car market and we’re in premium,” he said. “There is still a demand for premium saloons in the electric age. We see more of that [demand] in China, but there’s still demand in other parts of the world.”
Rowan noted that Chinese premium buyers prefer saloons with “really long leg room” in the back and said the ES90 will be developed with that market as a core focus.
Volvo’s preview image of the ES90 confirms that the model will feature a similar side profile to that of the current hybrid S90 and it will also take styling cues from the EX90, including the closed-off grille, ‘Thor’s hammer’ headlights and upright rear lights.