Alongside the chosen few in WIRED's breakdown of the most anticipated EVs coming this year, the arrival of the Volvo EX60 has also been eagerly awaited. This mainly because of the impressive stats surrounding the car; the headline claim is a range of more than 400 miles.
Sitting between the EX40 and EX90, the new EV looks more like a sibling of the entry-level EX30, which is a good car but too fast for it's own good. Plus, the reveal images here from Volvo initially seem to show that the design team has figured a way to remove the unsightly lidar roofline bulges that in some eyes ruined the finished aesthetic of the EX90. (A Volvo designer at the EX90's launch admitted to me the team had problems dealing with the hump.) However, I'm told that these images here show the new car without the lidar system installed, and that if your EX60 does have the optional lidar spec then, unfortunately, the humps will be there.
This is important because Volvo knows the look is not good. The brand went to great lengths to hide the lumps on the EX90 launch pictures—showing the car in the very far distance was my favorite tactic—and here with the EX60, it has chosen to reveal its latest EV to the world using the model where the tech is not even in the car. This choice to show the off EX60 with a preserved straight roofline is clearly deliberate, at best aimed at keeping the design team happy, and at worst possibly misleading to unsuspecting customers looking to buy the flagship model.
The look of the bigger EX30 is a win for the EX60, but Volvo has chosen to show the car without lidar lumps. Courtesy of Volvo
With 503 miles of maximum range (measured using the WLTP standard), this should still be a very impressive 400-plus miles on the US's EPA estimate. Plus the EX60 is all-wheel drive and, thanks to an 800-volt architecture, it can add 210 miles of range in 10 minutes—provided you happen upon a 400 kW fast-charger and your battery is in the 10 to 20 percent sweet spot when you roll up. The amount of range you get from a 10-minute fast charge drops to 173 miles using the EPA cycle, but this still it puts it very much in the same box as the excellent new BMW iX3. Volvo is saying in the best possible conditions just 19 minutes should be good to get you from 10 to 80 percent. Drag coefficient is a very respectable 0.26, which will help the car reach those high range targets.
Also, Volvo is to be commended here by committing to full EV and not backtracking to offer combustion or hybrid versions as well. That said, the combustion version of XC60 will still be available for some years yet, so the company isn't entirely all-in on electric.