Official: New Volvo EX60 is 'game-changer' with 503-mile range

Volvo has previously said that producing the rear floor section of the SPA3 platform as one piece via this method allows it to omit around 100 individual smaller parts, while dramatically reducing the amount of welded joints and cutting weight by about 50%.

Another significant development is the move to a cell-to-body battery design, which does away with the weighty, costly 'battery box' that features under the floor of most EVs today in favour of a new design where the cells are integrated directly into the frame of the car, which saves weight, boosts rigidity and takes up less space. It also saves on material costs and increases efficiencies in the production process.

“This car without batteries is a Fred Flinstone car – totally open,” Samuelsson explained, touting the benefits brought by the new process in terms of safety and cost.

Step-change in design

While the EX60 is pitched as the EV equivalent of the XC60, it's almost completely unrelated to its ICE sibling under the skin - and wears a bold new look that marks it out visually too.

Volvo said the new SUV "takes the company's Scandinavian design principles further into an all-electric era", highlighting its sleek, aerodynamically optimised silhouette and minimalist surfacing as hallmarks of the brand's EVs, which it is moving to differentiate more obviously from its ICE cars going forward.

Volvo said the EX60 "slides through the air", with its raked roofline, low bonnet, tapered wheel arches and bluff rear end contributing to a drag coefficient of just 0.26 (far lower than normal for an SUV of this size and more in line with a saloon or estate car), which is instrumental in achieving such lofty range figures.

Like the EX30, the EX60 will be offered in jacked-up, off-road-ready Cross Country guise, with a bespoke wheel design, skid plates, widened arches and a 20mm suspension lift - rising to 40mm as needed on challenging terrain or lowering back down to the standard car's ride height at a cruise to boost efficiency. It also comes in a unique shade of Frost Green, inspired by Scandinavian nature.

Otherwise, the EX60 will be offered in a simple choice of three trims – Core, Plus and Ultra – as part of a move to cut production costs and make the buying process as simple as possible.

Chief product and strategy officer Michael Fleiss explained: “We want to make sure that we have reduced variance in our product offer. That's the key of not making us more efficient and being able to offer a good price point for the cars – but also making it easier for the customer to decide and reducing wait times."

Supercar performance and huge range

The EX60 will be offered with a choice of single-motor and dual-motor powertrains, ranging in output from 369bhp in the rear-driven P6 entry variant right up to a lofty 671bhp in the P12 AWD, which is both the most powerful Volvo yet and, with an Audi RS3-matching 0-62mph time of just 3.9sec, the fastest.

The P6 takes its power from an 80kWh (usable) battery that's good for an official combined range of 620km on the WLTP cycle.

The mid-rung P10, which gets 503bhp from its two motors, boosts capacity to 91kWh and range to 410 miles while also increasing the maximum charging speed from 320kW to 370kW - making it one of the quickest-charging EVs yet launched in the UK.

It's the top-rung P12 that's capable of the headline-baiting 503 miles per charge, courtesy of a 112kWh battery pack that's among the largest fitted to a production car in Europe.

The rugged EX60 Cross Country will be offered exclusively with four-wheel drive, in line with its "go-anywhere" billing, with the 503bhp powertrain available from launch and the 671bhp option following later.

What's inside?

The EX60 follows its siblings in adopting Volvo's minimalist, digital-first cockpit arrangement, with its distinctive layered dashboard hosting a digital display ahead of the driver and a large central touchscreen serving as the main control interface. Physical controls feature only on the steering wheel and column stalks.

The new model goes without a conventional toggle switch for adjusting the mirrors, for example. This omission was heavily criticised in the EX30, but Fleiss told Autocar that Volvo has been carefully monitoring feedback and is confident that the EX60 offers a suitable balance of physical and digital controls.

“"We look at customer clinics and studies to look into what controls customers want and need, and I think we found a good balance on the EX60," he said. "But let's see. In the future, we might improve that even further.

"The most important thing is that the usage is as intuitive as you can create it, so that customers don't need to bother with adjusting a lot of things.”

Asked why Volvo is continuing to move away from physical switches and buttons just as vehicle safety testing body Euro NCAP has emphasised the need for car makers to embrace simpler and more intuitive control faces, Fleiss said that touchscreens and voice control functions can actually be safer to use on the move.

"A customer or driver needs to be a little bit distracted from driving,” he explained, “because for a good driver, it becomes too boring to drive: it's too easy for the brain to drive a car if you're an experienced driver."

A car you can chat with

All of the EX60’s infotainment, driver assistance and vehicle control systems are controlled by a new-generation computing system called HuginCore, which “empowers the car to think, process and act”.

Samuelsson explained to Autocar that the system is essentially “one software stack for all cars in the future on SPA2 and SPA3 and one central computer with some controllers taking care of the mechatronics".

Capable of 50 billion operations per second, it's said to bring huge improvements in operating speed and functionality compared with the previous system – and over-the-air update compatibility means it can theoretically be kept up to date for as long as the vehicle is in service.