Volvo was among the very first of the global automakers to declare plans to build an all-electrified future. Note the choice of word—electrified, not electric, as it includes hybrids, both plug-in and mild. When it comes to pure electric vehicles, the Swedish automaker has something of a two-pronged strategy. At the low end, there's the diminutive EX30 and EX30 Cross Country, a pair of stripped-down crossovers whose value proposition might be entirely different in light of tariffs and the end of the clean vehicle tax credit. At the other end of the spectrum is the EX90, a big battery electric SUV with tech so cutting-edge that some of it wasn't even ready when we had our first drive last fall.
The idea of a high-end Volvo is not a new one; for decades, the company has offered a low-key luxury alternative to the flashier German brands. It's just that back then, your family doctor probably drove a Volvo station wagon, whereas these days, most people want something with a little more height. Unlike the little EX30s, the EX90 should be largely unaffected by the recent chaos—it's built in South Carolina, so it isn't subject to import tariffs (beyond any imported parts used to build it) and with a starting price of $81,290, it's just too expensive to qualify for the IRS 30D tax credit, which now goes away at the end of September.
Do Volvo's impeccable safety credentials and the EX90's emissions-free powertrain purchase it any credit in the war on cars? Probably not, but there's something wonderfully incongruous about the slab sides and beige paint (actually a solid metallic called Sand Dune) accented by the bright jewelry of the daylight running lights, although the lidar hump on the roof continues to scream "London taxi cab" at me. (Did you know that Volvo's corporate parent also owns a company that builds those?) As you approach the car and it unlocks, the "Thor's Hammer" headlights do a neat little mechanical "blink"—think that one alien that Will Smith chased around the Guggenheim in Men in Black.
