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New luxurious Tesla Model Y rival coming: 2026 Volvo EX60 midsized electric SUV one of several hot Volvo electric cars set to outsmart Tesla, BMW iX3, Audi Q4 e-tron and Genesis GV60

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2025 Volvo EX90 Twin Motor Ultra Performance
Byron Mathioudakis
Contributing Journalist
9 Sep 2024
4 min read

Volvo has embarked on an ambitious expansion plan that will see a two-tiered approach to electric vehicles (EVs) moving forward based on the architecture they sit on.

While every model that springs from these will encompass the Swedish brand’s core pillars of safety, efficiency, technology and luxury, where they are sized, positioned and priced will in most cases determine which of two main platform families each model will employ.

This is where the highly-anticipated and incredibly important Volvo EX60 is expected to step in, as the company strives towards a full EV future from 2030.

It is one of several larger Volvo models slated to use the highly-sophisticated and thus expensive, in house-designed and developed, and highly-flexible Scalable Product Architecture 2 (SPA2) architecture.

The latter already underpins the new EX90 seven-seater SUV flagship and its Polestar 3 five-seater SUV sister, and will also carry the just-announced ES90 sedan that will compete against the Mercedes-Benz EQE Sedan, BMW i5 and others.

Slotting beneath these models, the EX60 is said to be a mid-sized EV SUV that will essentially supplant (but not fully replace initially) Volvo’s global bestseller, the ageing XC60, starting from 2026. Key rivals should include the Audi Q4 e-tron, Genesis GV60 and BMW iX3.

2026 Volvo ES90
2026 Volvo ES90

Of all the SPA2 EVs, it will likely be the most critical from a volume perspective for the brand, given the enduring success of the existing XC60 that first saw the light of day in early 2017.

Meanwhile, Volvo is set to lean on parent Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) platform – an umbrella term for a host of also-scalable but less expensive platforms.

Designed for more-mainstream EV models positioned underneath the EX60, it has been co-developed by Volvo with and for Zeekr, Smart (in partnership with Mercedes-Benz), Polestar, Lynk & Co and others within the Chinese automotive conglomerate’s portfolio.

2025 Volvo EX90 and 2025 Volvo XC90
2025 Volvo EX90 and 2025 Volvo XC90

SEA is already the basis for the successful Volvo EX30 small SUV, newly-released Smart #1 and #3 and Polestar 4 that is imminent for Australia, and is believed to be heading for a Volvo XC40-style EX40 (or EX50) model.

When we see that is anybody’s guess, but as the corresponding XC40 began production late in 2017, an announcement shouldn’t be too far away.

Whether talking about SPA2 or SEA, the aim here is to provide the economies of scale necessary to get each project over the line.

2025 Volvo EX30
2025 Volvo EX30

According to Volvo Cars Business Program Manager for the EX90, Mårten Wahlstedt, the exhaustive and time-consuming work that Volvo has embarked on to make the 'premium' EV platform it’s responsible for – the SPA2 – in terms of breakthrough inhouse electrification and software integration to enhance the user experience, will filter across and down the range, elevate the brand to the top of its field and hopefully future proof it into the next decade (and possibly beyond).

“When we have done this shift, how to build a fully EV from scratch, when we optimise the advantages we can get out of that, when we have the core computing in place, when we know how to develop our own and integrate our own software… and then learn how to control it all, then we have a splendid platform for any further vehicle which can be altered in various dimensions,” he revealed.

2025 Volvo EX90
2025 Volvo EX90

“But the basics of it are very similar (no matter what vehicle application the SPA2 ends up in).”

With such blanket coverage of the premium EV market, Volvo is - as its Latin-derived name suggests - on a roll.

More information is coming soon, so please watch this space.

Byron Mathioudakis
Contributing Journalist
Byron started his motoring journalism career when he joined John Mellor in 1997 before becoming a freelance motoring writer two years later. He wrote for several motoring publications and was ABC Youth radio Triple J's "all things automotive" correspondent from 2001 to 2003. He rejoined John Mellor in early 2003 and has been with GoAutoMedia as a senior product and industry journalist ever since. With an eye for detail and a vast knowledge base of both new and used cars Byron lives and breathes motoring. His encyclopedic knowledge of cars was acquired from childhood by reading just about every issue of every car magazine ever to hit a newsstand in Australia. The child Byron was the consummate car spotter, devoured and collected anything written about cars that he could lay his hands on and by nine had driven more imaginary miles at the wheel of the family Ford Falcon in the driveway at home than many people drive in a lifetime. The teenage Byron filled in the agonising years leading up to getting his driver's license by reading the words of the leading motoring editors of the country and learning what they look for in a car and how to write it. In short, Byron loves cars and knows pretty much all there is to know about every vehicle released during his lifetime as well as most of the ones that were around before then.
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