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Volvo's Tesla Model S Rival, the ES90, Is Coming: Here's What We Know

Volvo's going all in on Tesla Model S challenger

Volvo ES90 Teaser Image overexposed
  • Volvo's first electric sedan will be called ES90.
  • Remember the old S90? Think of that, just fully electric and all-new.
  • The release is just a few weeks away.

Volvo has gone (almost) all in on EVs. While its plans to go fully electric by 2030 have been slightly delayed, the brand is still hard at work pushing out new electric cars. The Swedish automaker's newest model, the ES90, will be a fully electric luxury sedan to compete with the Tesla Model SBMW i5, and Mercedes-Benz EQE sedan. A full reveal is just a few weeks away, so this is what we know right now.

The teaser images you see here were all overexposed by us to try to get a better idea of what we're looking at. The first image clearly shows the driver's side hood line. The hood clearly kicks up, as if in an effort to help shape airflow around the car, and the lidar sensor (we'll come to that later). The image below is a top-down view, and it gives us an idea of the ES90's overall length and what looks like taillights that are integrated into the rearmost pillars, as well as more conventional lights that are integrated into the trunk. Other images — along with the originals — can be found in the gallery below.

Volvo ES90 Teaser Image overexposed

Think of the ES90 as, quite literally, an all-electric version of the brand's oft-forgotten S90 sedan. It will be based on the Volvo group's SPA2 platform — the same basic structure that serves as the basis for cars like the EX90 SUV and the Polestar 3. Given we've already driven the Polestar 3 and EX90 (and been impressed with both), we know a little bit about what to expect. A battery pack with a usable capacity of around 100 kWh will form the floor of the vehicle, and all-wheel drive will be standard thanks to two electric motors (one on the front axle, one on the rear).

Given the Polestar 3 we tested got over 300 miles of range on the real-world Edmunds EV Range Test, we think it's safe to say the longest-range versions of the ES90 will hover around 315 miles of range (possibly more thanks to a sedan's naturally lower weight and better aerodynamics when compared with an SUV's). Expect the ES90's max charging power to be similar to the EX90's 250 kW and charge times from 10% to 80% to be around 30 minutes when on an appropriately speedy charger.

Volvo is also going all in on safety tech for the ES90. That probably comes as no surprise given the company created the seatbelt, but we now know what exactly to expect. A total of one lidar, five radars, eight cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors, as well as a driver monitoring system inside the car, will all work in tandem to detect obstacles and ensure drivers are alert. All those sensors will feed info to Volvo's Superset software platform that's powered by an NVIDIA processor. Volvo says the ES90 will be the most powerful car it has ever made in terms of core computing capacity.

Stay tuned for more details on the upcoming ES90; we won't have to wait that long.

Volvo ES90 Teaser Image overexposed