If you pay attention to the Chinese luxury car market, you will find an interesting phenomenon. While sedans, sports cars, and SUVs are abundant in the car consumption market, MPV models are rare. Only one or two brands can truly carry the flag of luxury and high value in this market, but their prices overseas are significantly higher, making them a reluctant choice for consumers who only choose expensive but not suitable options. As the car industry transitions to new energy, many aspiring brands are focusing on MPV models as their flagship products. Luxury car brands that understand the Chinese market are also gradually strengthening their presence in this market to solidify their value system. Representing a “traditional” luxury brand, Volvo has introduced its own MPV solution, the all-new EM90. It inherits the classic, but also keeps up with modern trends.
The official statement said that the Volvo EM90 pays tribute to the legendary model “Duett” introduced by Volvo in 1953, and its design also embodies the classic carriage style of the Duett. The protruding front end of the car is large in size, and the square carriage exudes a sense of grandeur. The overall size and exterior design are very much in line with the posture a flagship MPV should have. It retains some design elements from fuel-powered cars, while the detailed design has a futuristic feel and a unique design tone.
The Volvo EM90 has a large front end, similar in style to the EX90, with Volvo’s family front face design. The grille features an asymmetrical ripple-like digital matrix design, officially called the “Nordic Galaxy Dynamic Grille,” confirming its pure electric identity, with a light-up Volvo logo in the center. The front bumper also has large ventilation holes on both sides and a large trapezoidal intake decoration strip at the bottom, giving it a sporty feel.
The Volvo EM90 continues to feature the family’s iconic T-shaped Thor’s Hammer headlights, similar in design to the Volvo EX90 but without the “winking” feature. The main headlight unit is equipped with intelligent matrix headlights with adaptive high beam function, as well as front headlights with steering function. It can be linked to a closed luminous grille, which dynamically lights up when the vehicle is started, and the starry points on the front grille gradually light up, creating a strong sense of ceremony.
The shape of the rearview mirror seems conventional, with black/body color dual-layer design and LED turn signal on the outside. The entire rearview mirror assembly is placed above the door, with almost full functionality, including power adjustment, heating, folding, and equipped with a video camera.
The design of the double A-pillar is very spiritual, using a high-cost curved glass here, combined with the super large front windshield to increase the overall sense of design, presenting an almost transparent A-pillar visual, and significantly increasing the driver’s field of vision.
The Volvo EM90 maintains its square style, with a straight and regular waistline. It features the popular floating roof design and a small surface on the C-pillar to add some sportiness to the side profile. The car comes in colors such as golden sand, sea gray, crystal white, and onyx black, with golden sand being a new exterior color for Volvo. The dimensions are 5206/2024/1859mm in length, width, and height, with a wheelbase of 3205mm. The large size of the car provides ample space and a business-like atmosphere, which is attractive to consumers. Its drag coefficient is only 0.270Cd, providing longer range and theoretically lower overall vehicle noise.
In order to create more seating space, the rear of the car is designed to be relatively straight, echoing the style of the front of the car and maintaining a consistent design style throughout. The combination of lines and colors is simpler and clearer than the front, with a large rear window and a simple and oversized rear door, giving the overall appearance a more conventional design for a large MPV, giving it a sense of stability.
The shape of the taillights is unlike anything before. The new car’s taillights do not use the “Viking axe” shape that many Volvo models use, but instead use the official “urban light and shadow dynamic taillights” inspired by the night scene of Lujiazui, resembling the Shanghai Center building reflected on the surface of the lake at night. The overall shape is a large T-shaped structure, with very thin double-width lights, the light housing seamlessly integrated with the rear window, but not connected, and the VOLVO letter logo in the center can be illuminated.
The 18-inch eight-spoke wheels add a touch of business elegance to the side of the car, and their semi-enclosed structure gives them a typical “new energy” flavor. The tires are from the Michelin brand’s UltraContact UC6 SUV series, with a size of 265/45 R20, making them a luxury and balanced choice for city SUVs. It’s known as the “Scandinavian living room.”
The Volvo EM90 continues the minimalist style, which is derived from its own family heritage and officially referred to as the Scandinavian living room design style. The T-shaped layout with curved layers and the color matching complement each other. The narrow and small full LCD instrument panel on the center console and the large vertical layout of the dual-screen center console display are very technological and minimalist in style. The inspiration for the 5 themed ambient lights – Nordic Aurora, Archipelago Twilight, Midsummer Light Year, Midsummer Night, and Nordic Forest – comes from the different sky colors of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the design of the entire cabin continues the Nordic minimalist style, exuding a sense of sophistication.
However, in terms of details, the inspiration for the interior materials and patterns comes from the natural landscapes of Scandinavia and Eastern aesthetics. The real wood bamboo grain translucent trim panel is a typical example, with ultra-thin ash wood and ambient lighting at the bottom simulating the dappled sunlight through the bamboo forest, and there is also a “VOLVO Morse code” easter egg. In terms of materials, Volvo continues to adhere to its consistent environmentally friendly style, using environmentally friendly materials and water-based paint for the interior, and the cabin does not use animal leather, all materials are skin-friendly and low-carbon.
The narrow LCD instrument panel UI design is not only clean and concise, full of technology, but also can link with the central large screen to display navigation and media pages, improving driving safety.
The new three-spoke multifunction steering wheel design is refreshing as always. It features controls for driving and multimedia functions on both sides. The use of translucent black decorative panels gives a cleaner visual effect and matches the overall interior style of the vehicle.
The design concept of the Volvo EM90 cabin is to turn the vehicle into a mobile living room, dining room, music hall, and conference room. For this kind of scenario, excellent intelligent configuration is necessary. The entire cabin’s intelligent interaction center is the 15.4-inch central control screen, which is suspended above the center console. It is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, with 5G network, and touch and drag are very smooth.
The car system adopts a new version, specifically optimized for the MPV model’s functions, with an exclusive small interface for operating the entire cabin’s doors and seats.
The function configuration is top-notch, covering the most advanced car networking functions at the moment. The navigation is customized with Gaode Map, including functions such as finding charging piles. The media source is equipped with Tencent iQiYi, including content such as Bilibili, iQiYi, and Tencent iQiYi.
The Volvo EM90 is equipped with a Bowers & Wilkins sound system with 21 speakers and an output power of 2460W. It features QUANTUMLOGIC® IMMERSION surround sound, just like many other flagship Volvo models. The hall-level music experience is still present.
The Volvo EM90 is equipped with multiple high-definition cameras, panoramic cameras, millimeter-wave radar, and ultrasonic sensors, creating a nearly pure visual driving assistance solution. It adopts the World Tree Intelligent Safety System and is equipped with a new passive safety system based on a new sensor system. This system can monitor the surrounding environment of the vehicle in real time through various sensors and monitoring devices, and automatically adjust the body structure and layout of safety airbags according to the situation to minimize the impact on passengers in the event of a collision, and also supports advanced automatic driving assistance systems.
In terms of the white body, the new car adopts a high-strength cage body design and uses a variety of high-strength steel materials, including boron steel, to effectively reduce the potential damage caused by accident impacts. At the same time, the new car also has multiple safety airbags around the cabin, and the dual A-pillar design can both maintain the strength of the cage safety body and reduce the driver’s blind spot.
In terms of air conditioning, the new car is equipped with three-zone automatic air conditioning. The Volvo EM90 comes standard with Volvo’s unique air purification technology, equipped with efficient air conditioning filters and active air purification technology, which can remove up to 95% of PM2.5 particles. Taking care of space more thoughtfully.
The driver’s seat is spacious and comfortable, following the home route. The fabric seat surface uses patterns and contrasting colors to further highlight the luxury. The headrest has a butterfly-shaped design, and the side wings enhance the wrapping, combined with the shoulder support design, the entire seat cushion provides sufficient support and wrapping. The configuration includes electric adjustment, ventilation, heating, and massage, which is indeed very comprehensive.
The EM90 features a six-seat layout with spacious dimensions, not only providing ample interior space, but also utilizing a second-row first-class cabin design that exudes luxury. The completely independent aviation seats not only look very prestigious, but also provide an upgraded seating experience compared to the front row. The interior is filled with zero-gravity relief pressure sponge, and the filling also uses a 7-layer structural design with a thickness of more than 120mm.
The second row is fully functional, with independent air conditioning vents, and provides a small foldable table with a cup holder, as well as seat ventilation, heating, multiple massage modes, and multi-angle adjustment. Overall, the configuration level seems quite high.
The 1100mm long slide rail ensures that passengers can unlock any desired seating space here, and the one-click return on the side makes it more convenient for rear passengers to get on and off.
The 15.6-inch rear cabin smart screen supports multi-angle electric adjustment. It is operated by a remote control and mainly provides entertainment functions. This is a popular configuration for electric MPVs nowadays. It also supports wireless screen mirroring for connecting to a phone, providing a low-learning-cost entertainment experience for rear passengers.
The second-row seat control area is on the armrest, and the touch function is also added on the double-sided sliding door panel, embedded in a whole piece of carefully selected natural FSC certified wood, and the air conditioning, windows, and sunshades can also be controlled through this touch screen.
The round LCD panel displays and controls information such as the car’s climate and clock. Despite its less concise operation, it exudes a strong sense of technology and ceremony.
The second-row seats do not support lateral sliding, but the vehicle has a smaller ground clearance, a larger sliding door area, and an extra-long slide rail for the second-row seats to create a larger door entry and exit space, allowing passengers to enter and exit the third-row space in a more dignified manner.
The third row also performs well in terms of space, although the seat volume and comfort have decreased, the space remains the same. After adjusting the second-row seats to the regular position, the ride feeling can also compare to the second row of a typical small SUV.
The Volvo EM90 roof is made of suede material, very luxurious. The cabin is equipped with a large two-section panoramic sunroof with electric sunshade, officially called the Lapland Aurora Sky Curtain. In addition, there are 1.2-meter-long ambient light strips on both sides of the sunroof, inspired by the Northern Lights of Northern Europe.
In terms of storage space, the interior of the car is equipped with many specially designed storage spaces with limits and hooks, and a large amount of velour is used inside.
The new car’s trunk opening is lower to the ground, making it easier to handle heavy items. Due to the advantage of the car’s size, the entire space of the trunk is more than enough for daily use, and can still accommodate four full-size golf bags even when fully loaded.
When a large load is needed, the backrest of the third-row seats can be folded forward or backward to lie flat, combined with the forward movement of the second-row seats, the maximum volume of the trunk can be expanded to 1826L.
The Volvo EM90 is built on the SEA Haohan architecture platform, making it the second new energy vehicle model based on the SEA Haohan architecture platform after the EX30. In terms of power, the Volvo EM90 is equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous single motor with silicon carbide material provided by Weirui, with a maximum power of 200kW, peak torque of 343N·m, and energy consumption of 17.2kWh/100km per hundred kilometers.
The use of crystal gear shift knob adds a sense of luxury to the car interior. This crystal gear shift knob from the O-REI-SHI brand is not the first time we have seen it on a Volvo model, but on the EM90, it adopts 360° three-dimensional polishing technology, making the crystal look more transparent and clean, and feel more rounded.
The Volvo EM90 uses a lithium-ion battery with fire prevention technology and a 5G cloud-based BMS monitoring system to enhance safety. The 116 kWh capacity battery provides a range of 738 kilometers under CLTC conditions. It has slow and fast charging ports on the front and rear right side, with a charging time of 27 minutes from 10% to 80% battery. Additionally, the Volvo EM90 offers bi-directional charging to charge other electric vehicles and appliances.
Chassis, the new car has front double wishbone and rear multi-link suspension, with dual-chamber air suspension system, and CCD electromagnetic shock absorption system. Luxury can be the same, or it can be unique. Perhaps in the comparison of configuration and price lists, it is difficult to intuitively feel the comparative advantages of EM90. But honestly, the feeling it gives is not something that can be understood from the configuration table or written description. Volvo has always had its unique understanding of manufacturing luxury cars. Whether it’s the exterior design or the details of the cabin, every aspect of the EM90 reflects Volvo’s unique insights into a car. Its design concept has always been unique in the market, something you won’t see in other brands, and this is perhaps the value of the Volvo brand and the value of the EM90.