Up to 800 kilometres of range and just 10 minutes for a charge: Volvo launches the EX60, the electric car designed to counter the doubts and concerns of those considering going electric.
Last February, when we previewed the debut of the Volvo EX60, we described the new Swedish electric as a car designed to counter charging anxiety — that fear (increasingly unfounded) of not being able to recharge the battery, perhaps in the middle of a long journey. Now, following the official debut, we return to the subject to find out whether this is really the case: whether the new Volvo EX60, with its declared urban electric range of over 800 kilometres, truly is the antidote to that anxiety.
First, though, let's take stock of the electric vehicle market in Italy. According to data released in early August by Unrae, battery-electric cars in July accounted for just 5.9 per cent of market share — an improvement on the 4.9 per cent recorded a year ago, but a sharp drop from the peak of 10.1 per cent reached in June, partly due to the exhaustion of state incentives. These figures still lag far behind those of other major European markets, where Italy remains the only country without direct purchase incentives for privately owned pure-electric vehicles.
Into this context arrives the new Volvo EX60, the Swedish brand's first step into the most crowded segment of the electric market — medium-to-large SUVs (the car is 4.80 metres long) — where it faces fierce competition, including the recently launched Bmw iX3. This is a five-seat SUV built on a new native electric architecture (and we'll shortly understand what its main advantages are).
The range comprises three powertrains. The P12 Awd, the most powerful, with a declared range of up to 810 kilometres; the P10 Awd (the version we tested), with 2 electric motors (an asynchronous unit at the front and a permanent-magnet synchronous unit at the rear) delivering a combined output of 510 horsepower (375 kW) and a declared range of 660 kilometres. Rounding out the EX60 line-up is the P6, the only rear-wheel-drive version, with a declared range of 620 kilometres.
And on the subject of charging anxiety, here's a figure worth noting straight away: plugging the car into a 400 kW fast charger recovers up to 340 kilometres of range in just 10 minutes, thanks to 800 V technology (the higher the voltage, the greater the system's energy efficiency and the lower the stress on the battery cells), and the ability to accept up to 370 kW. To put that in context, there are currently 600 fast-charger points with a capacity equal to or greater than 350 kW active across the country, alongside 4,300 charging points with a capacity equal to or greater than 150 kW but below 350 kW (data from PUN-Piattaforma Unica Nazionale, fed by network operators). A full charge from a domestic socket, on the other hand, takes 9 hours. Prices start at €65,350.
As always, we leave judgements on style and design to you (in part shared with two other Volvo electrics, EX30 and EX90). We'll simply point out one early result the EX60 achieves in terms of efficiency: its aerodynamic drag coefficient of 0.26 is one of the features contributing to its excellent range figures. Inside, the long wheelbase and flat floor (beneath which the battery pack is housed) provide generous space both front and rear, while the rear boot (large and regularly shaped) is complemented by a second front compartment that is handy for storing charging cables. The EX60 is the model with the highest proportion of recycled materials (27 per cent) of any Volvo.
But the real technological novelty of the EX60 is the integration of Gemini, Google's artificial intelligence model — a first for a Volvo. The system effectively allows a wide range of the car's functions to be managed through natural conversation, without the need to learn specific voice commands. A few examples? You can ask Gemini to retrieve a hotel reservation address from your email, suggest stops for your next trip, or — using a camera connected to the AI — read and interpret parking signs in real time, making sense of restrictions, time limits, any permits required or pricing rules.
Volvo has always invested heavily in safety, starting with the invention, in 1959, of the first three-point seat belt, which made its debut on the Volvo PV544. Many milestones have followed, contributing to saving millions of lives around the world. The EX60 today represents the state of the art in Volvo safety, featuring a system that uses interior cameras and radar to estimate the height and weight of each occupant, thereby determining the precise amount of pressure the seat belts should apply to the body in the event of a collision.
And on the subject of safety, the assessment of the Adas driver-assistance systems is highly positive: not only do they work well, but features such as driver monitoring and lane-keeping assistance never intervene in an intrusive manner (as is often the case with many electric cars, especially recent Chinese models) unless there is a genuine reason to do so; similarly, the adaptive cruise control performs very well.
From a dynamic standpoint, the Volvo EX60 is a car that places great emphasis on the concept of driving serenity — that blend which we at LifeGate have rated positively many times in the past, born of a mix between performance, driving pleasure, quietness and attention to comfort, without sacrificing driver engagement (in the best sense of the word). Much of the credit also goes to the welcoming, "polished" interior, where wood and soft-touch materials alternate, to the brightness provided by the large glass roof, and more broadly to that relaxed character which is quintessentially Volvo DNA — something that puts you at ease straight away and only grows stronger with every kilometre.
Of course, certain aspects take a little getting used to, such as the scarcity of physical buttons (with many functions — including the climate control, wing-mirror adjustment and steering column adjustment — entrusted solely to the large touchscreen display), or the digital key via smartphone, whose use requires Bluetooth to be active on your phone. To be clear, these are all positive innovations that simply need a little more time — which we did not have during our test drive — to fully appreciate their benefits.
Finally, on the subject of consumption and efficiency, the Volvo EX60 returned results during our test drive that were very close to the official figures, with a real-world range of over 500 kilometres. Particularly convenient is the Plug&charge system which, at public charging stations equipped with the feature, allows you to plug in and charge the car without the need for apps, cards, tags or any other authentication method.
