New Volvo EM90 Arrives As Brand’s First-Ever Minivan

The all-new Volvo EM90 EV arrives as the marque's first-ever minivan model

After several teasers and spy shots, Volvo has finally unveiled its first-ever minivan model, dubbed as the Volvo EM90. Based on the Geely-owned Zeekr 009, this EV MPV shares much of its components with its Chinese counterpart, albeit in an arguably more stylish form courtesy of several Volvo’s signature design elements.

While the EM90 boasts the same boxy MPV body style as the Zeekr 009, this Swedish EV MPV comes with a pretty nice front face that features some familiar design elements. Key highlights include the signature Thor’s hammer LED headlights borrowed from the new EX90 EV SUV, grille-less front fascia illuminated Volvo’s Iron Mark emblem and dotted light elements, plus a black-hued lower bumper opening that helps to channel cool air to the brakes and batteries.

From the side, the EM90 looks painstakingly similar to its Chinese donor, with the only notable difference between the two being the 19- or 20-inch wheel options the Swedish EV MPV comes with. Same thing can be said to its rear part, too, as the EM90 gets similar LED taillights design as the 009 plus extended light elements that run along the C-pillar, as well as some Volvo branding to make both models a tad bit different.

The EM90 features a pretty minimalist cabin design, as highlighted by this sleek cockpit layout

Designed to be a hybrid of luxurious peoplemover and mobile office on wheels, the EM90 gets a pretty decent cabin space, featuring a six-seater (2+2+2) layout. Up front, the EM90 cockpit features an unmistakably Scandinavian design. Key highlights include a slim digital instrument cluster that hides beneath the sleek steering wheel, a massive 15.4-inch tablet-style centre infotainment screen with very few physical buttons in sight, floating central console with minimal controls and lots of storage spaces, and many more.

The highlight of the EM90’s cabin, however, lies on the second row seat. Featuring two captain-style seats with full ventilated, heated and power reclining functions, they also come equipped with folding trays that can instantly transform your cabin into a private dining area or a mobile office. Instead of having individual tablets like we saw on many other luxury MPVs, both seats come with an individual control panel located at each door card, granting passengers access to the seats’ controls, the cabin climate control, and many more.

More importantly, the EM90 also comes with a retractable 15.6-inch screen that is mounted on the car’s headliner, with said display supporting tons of third-party apps and even mobile screen projection. Aside from said control panel, this display can also be operated via voice commands, allowing passengers to transform their cabin into either a moving home theatre or a video conference room literally with their voices.

The China-bound Volvo EM90 is powered by a single, rear-mounted electric motor setup

On the powertrain front, the EM90 is only offered with a single, rear-mounted (RWD) electric motor setup for now. Rated at 268 HP (200 kW), this setup is good enough to propel this luxury EV MPV from nought to 100 KM/H in 8.3 seconds. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether the EM90 will also be offered with a much potent dual-motor AWD version as we saw on the Zeekr 009. For reference, this AWD setup boasts a total system output of 536 HP (400 kW), granting the Zeekr 009 AWD with a faster century sprint time of 4.5 seconds en route to its limited V-max of 190 KM/H.

Much like its Chinese counterpart, the EM90 is also powered by a massive 116-kWh nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery pack sourced from CATL, granting it with an impressive maximum range of 738 KM, at least on the CLTC testing protocol. Volvo also claims that the EM90 can be charged from 10% to 80% in just under 30 minutes, though no specific kW figures were given by the automaker.

The all-new Volvo EM90 EV MPV is now available for booking exclusively in the Chinese market for now, with initial customer deliveries expected to commence shortly. Priced from CNY 818,000 (RM529,259), the EM90 is poised to go against other luxury MPVs like the Lexus LM and the Mercedes-Benz V-Class in the Chinese market.

As for now, Volvo has yet to announce the availability of its first-ever MPV model in other international markets, citing that such a plan is still under consideration. However, with the Lexus LM recently making its debut in the European market, we can expect the EM90 EV MPV to hit the same market sooner or later.