More Variants of the 2024 Volvo EX90 Electric Three-Row SUV To Come

The 2024 Volvo EX90 launches as a three-row, seven-passenger SUV but there is a growth plan for the vehicle, says Anders Gustafsson, president and CEO of Volvo USA and head of Volvo Cars Americas. Volvo will be an EV-only company by the end of the decade with the EX90 as its flagship, and there's more to come.

There will be additional variants and configurations to come, says Volvo Cars chief operating officer Javier Varela. "It is possible with the platform to take away seats," he says when asked about a two-row version in the future. The EX90 will launch with dual motors for all-wheel drive. If a single motor version follows, it will be rear-biased. The modular platform can also accommodate a performance version. Volvo wants to get away from typical trim levels and instead offer vehicles with different levels of equipment.

The electric three-row SUV made its global debut at an event in November in Sweden. Attendees at the 2023 CES trade show in January can catch their first look at the 2024 Volvo EX90 at exhibits featuring partners like lidar supplier Luminar.

The EX90 is the first electric vehicle on the new SPA2 platform, a dedicated EV platform and an evolution of the SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) used by current models including the Volvo XC90. "It's brand new," Gustafsson says of SPA2, and the 2024 EX90 will be Volvo's first dedicated electric car that was not intended to have an internal combustion engine option.

The EX90 will go into production in 2023 for deliveries in 2024. It will share an assembly line with the Polestar 3 two-row electric SUV which made its world premiere in October. The two EVs will be assembled at the Volvo plant in Chengdu, China, in 2023 and in 2024 both will also be rolling off the line at the retooled and expanded Volvo plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina.

The Polestar 3 will technically be the first vehicle to use the new SPA2 dedicated platform; prototype production is well underway at the Volvo plant in China with EX90 production to follow shortly after. The Polestar 3 will be exported to U.S. customers in the second half of 2023, says Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath.

For Volvo, it made sense to make the EX90 the first Volvo on SPA2 because it will piggyback on the popularity of the profitable XC90 and the timing lined up well against the cycle plan, Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan told MotorTrend following the debut of the EX90 in Stockholm. The XC90, on the original SPA platform, was already on the market when SPA2 was being developed a few years ago, Rowan says.

SPA2 was designed to better package batteries to maximize storage room in the EVs. The new vehicles also will have new inverters, motors, and a battery management system designed and developed in-house. The EX90 has two AI platforms from Nvidia and redundant equipment for safety. The electrical architecture supports the Google-powered infotainment system that is 2.5 times faster to load and operate.

While Volvo and Polestar prepare to launch new vehicles on SPA2, engineers are already working on the next platform evolution, referred to as GPA for Global Product Architecture. GPA would use an 800-volt system for faster charging than the 400-volt system for the EX90.

We are still a few years from seeing the new GPA platform. It will have the modularity to create a wider spectrum of vehicle types and sizes and gets closer to price parity with vehicles with internal combustion engines, Varela says. In addition to being an 800-volt system, GPA will have breakthroughs via software, the COO says, but he would not elaborate on what they are.