2025
Volvo EX90

Problems we’ve encountered with the test vehicle

Again, with every car we review, before we put it through our official, instrumented tests, we drive it at least 2,000 miles to make sure everything is working and to gather our initial impressions. Because the new cars we purchase are among the first examples built, they occasionally require some tweaks and repairs. That’s what happened with our Chevrolet Blazer EV, our Fisker Ocean, and our first Tesla Model 3. Even compared to those past examples, our EX90 has had an extraordinary number of issues for a vehicle that’s supposedly production-ready. In our first thousand miles with the car, it’s been back to the dealership twice, and we’ve encountered the following problems: 

• The third-row seats wouldn’t fold correctly. The dealership addressed this but warned us that the seat motors might overheat.
• An airbag warning light stayed on for over a week, and the automatic crash notification/SOS system didn’t work until we downloaded and installed a software update.
• The following message occasionally takes over the display behind the steering wheel: “Starting Up: Your Volvo is getting ready. This will take a few minutes.” At these times, the car is temporarily undrivable. This happened when we tried to take it to the dealership to get the airbag issue fixed, and it took four minutes for the car to start.
• The audio system shuts down either in part or in whole. Sometimes it’s the radio that doesn’t work. Sometimes the phone won’t connect. Sometimes the screen goes blank.
• The climate controls can’t be used when the screen stops working, adding a new, literal twist on the word “freeze.”
• Blind spot warning (BSW) alarms sound when the car is stopped and not near obstacles or other cars.
• On one occasion, the car wouldn’t charge. We tried multiple chargers that we knew worked with other vehicles, and none of them worked. The next day, the EX90 charged normally.
  

That’s not including the features that we paid for but aren’t active yet. For example, when Volvo first unveiled the EX90 in 2022, the automaker said it would be one of the first production vehicles to use lidar sensors for its active safety and driver assistance systems. Lidar, which uses lasers to precisely measure distances, is supposed to help the EX90 see pedestrians at night and prevent collisions with cars that run stop signs. It could also improve existing tech, such as the adaptive cruise control and lane centering assistance. We’ll have to wait a little bit longer to try these features, though, because the lidar on the earliest batch of EX90s is currently only in “learning” mode. Full functionality won’t be activated until later this year. Other delayed features include a “light mode” for the display, automatic billing for public EV charging stations, and a function that keeps the battery from losing charge when the car is parked.

We judge vehicles’ and manufacturers’ reliability from our surveys of owners’ experiences, so we can’t say whether our experience is indicative of others. We’ll wait to hear what EX90 owners tell us when they respond to our next reliability survey.

Although other car testers and car publications seem to have mostly positive things to say about the EX90s they borrowed from Volvo, a quick glance at Volvo owner forums and Reddit threads indicates that we’re not the only ones having issues with our vehicle.

We contacted Volvo’s public relations department about our EX90’s specific problems. A spokesperson told us that installing an over-the-air software update known as version 1.3.18 would address many of the problems we encountered, and also turn on some inactive features we paid for. We installed that update as soon as our car got back from the dealership, and the airbag warning light immediately turned off. However, audio via Bluetooth, the radio, or other sources wouldn’t work, and unprovoked error messages persisted. We’ll continue to monitor how the car performs, but we think the effectiveness of the software update is beside the point. If software version 1.3.18 was required to fix the many bugs we encountered, then the EX90 should not have been sold to the public until 1.3.18 was ready and installed.

CR often warns buyers to avoid all-new or redesigned cars in their first model year. Our reliability survey results consistently show that all-new models usually have some teething problems. However, manufacturers tend to sort out those issues in subsequent years. We certainly hope that happens with the EX90. In the meantime, the Kia EV9 is an all-electric three-row SUV that costs $20,000 less than the Volvo, and hasn’t given us or surveyed owners the same sense of being a beta tester. (We’re also in the process of testing the Hyundai Ioniq 9, another three-row all-electric SUV.)

Although it had some faults, the EX90 has plenty of power to make its driver feel confident in city driving, and when passing on the highway. It’s not pin-you-into-the-seat kind of power, but it’s more than enough for most situations.

Nearly every CR tester who sat in the EX90 commented on its stylish interior. The white birch trim is unique but not gimmicky, and it adds to the cabin’s airy, serene ambience. Many surfaces are carpeted or leather-trimmed.

In keeping with the serene interior, the EX90 does a great job isolating wind, motor, and road noise. It’s an extremely comfortable place to be.

Software issues aside, the main touchscreen responds quickly to inputs and is easy to see. The surround view camera zooms in on the part of the car that’s closest to an obstacle, which is a useful feature. We like that Volvo put a second screen on the steering column behind the steering wheel. Unlike many newer vehicles, in the EX90 the steering wheel doesn’t block the driver’s view of the speedometer or other gauges.

The manual flap covering the charger is easy to open and close, and the button to unlock the cable has worked reliably so far. Google Maps integration does a good job of showing us which public chargers are nearby and functional. We like the simple display that showed how many amps the car was drawing, and how soon it would be finished charging. We also like how easy it is to choose between a 90-percent charge—for optimal long-term battery health—and a 100 percent charge—for a long road trip.

Even when its screens aren’t frozen and all the buttons are working, the EX90’s user interface suffers from some maddening design decisions.

• The only way to fully “wake up” the car is to place the keycard or your phone key onto the wireless charger, press the brake pedal, and shift the car into D or R. That’s right: You can’t open the power windows without shifting into gear. Luckily, when you release the brake pedal, the EX-90 stays in a brake hold mode until you press the accelerator, but we fear it would be all too easy for someone to turn the car on to open or close a window, forget they are in gear, and unintentionally accelerate. In addition, a few of our test drivers found it difficult to determine when the car was fully on.
• You have to adjust the steering wheel and mirrors first by selecting a setting in the central touchscreen, then using the touch-sensitive steering wheel controls. As with Tesla vehicles, which use a similar setup, the process is needlessly complex, and it prevents you from making adjustments when the screen freezes.
• The “resume” button for adaptive cruise control doesn’t seem to work, so the driver must select a new speed every time they want to re-engage it.
• The steering wheel controls aren’t illuminated at night, so you have to feel around for the right button and stare at the icons in the “gauge cluster” to see if you have chosen the correct one.
• There’s only one pair of power window switches on the driver’s door, along with a touch-sensitive button that toggles between front and rear windows. Volkswagen uses a similar setup, and it appeared just as annoying a cost-cutting decision.
• The wiper buttons on the end of the turn signal stalk are very small and hard to use by touch.
• You can’t make any climate adjustment with a single press. Instead, you have to bring up a menu to change fan speed, airflow mode, or even temperature.
• The turn signal stalk is a “monostable” design that immediately returns to its original position after engagement. Sometimes, the signal turns off automatically, but sometimes it doesn’t. If you want to cancel a turn signal, you might overcorrect and turn on the opposite signal.

Because the system runs on Google software, you have to log in to the Google ecosystem to take advantage of most features. Logging a car into your Google account could cause privacy concerns, such as saving navigation destinations to your account history. In addition, there’s no Android Auto option, although the system works with Apple CarPlay.

Unlike the Volvo EX30, the EX90 doesn’t come with a key fob. Instead, drivers are supposed to either connect the car to a phone app or use a key card. Our car came with two cards, and one of them stopped working within the first week we had the car. Luckily, CR’s Crossen had the forethought to zip-tie both cards together, so our test drivers were less likely to be stranded. A few testers said the passenger door didn’t recognize the key card at all. Recently, the dealership replaced our faulty keycard, and we will be keeping an eye on whether this remedies the problems.

Other cars that rely on key cards usually clearly indicate where to tap the card to open the door. The EX90 offers a red herring instead: The indentation on the door handle is specifically where you’re not supposed to swipe the card. Once you tap it in the correct spot and get inside, you then have to tap the key card in the spot where you’d normally charge your phone. In cases like this, it feels like luxury car designers are just trying to humiliate valets.

Aside from minivans and full-sized SUVs like the Chevrolet Suburban, we expect third rows to be cramped, but the EX90 has especially little headroom—as a 5’10” adult, I had to duck my head to even sit down.

There’s also a flimsy plastic doohickey that sticks out of the bottom of the floor, and it’s placed exactly where someone would put their foot down on their way into the back seat. Your least-favorite neighbor’s kid is probably going to break this piece off.

The steering is very light and responds almost too quickly to the tiniest input. Combined with a lack of feedback, it can make the driver feel disconnected from what the front wheels are doing.

The panoramic roof does not have a sunshade, so the cabin heats up on sunny days. The second row has an old-school two-step mechanism for tilting/sliding the sunroof out of the way, even though some less-expensive vehicles have a one-press version. The exterior door handles can also be difficult to pull up on, and sometimes have a small delay before responding.

The EX90’s lidar sensors stick out of the top of the windshield like the sign on a London taxicab. However, because the lidar system isn’t fully active, those sensors aren’t actively helping the vehicle’s ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) features steer and brake. For example, the EX90’s lane centering assistance feature currently works well at keeping the SUV centered on the highway, but it can drift slightly within the lane at times. We’ll have to see if lidar provides a clear advantage over other systems once Volvo activates more of the sensors’ capabilities. (At least they didn’t destroy our phone cameras.)

Version 1.3.18 seems to have fixed a few bugs and added a few features, but we still have questions. Will the key cards become easier to use? Will BSW keep sounding alarms even when the car is stopped? Why is there no volume for FM radio? Can software fix a weird steering feel? Stay tuned.

Although the air suspension seems to do a good job of keeping the EX90 steady over undulating roads, singular impacts could “ping” through into the cabin.

We’ll have to play around with the “Constant AWD” setting. When it’s not turned on, the EX90 can sometimes accelerate in bursts, as if the front and rear motors aren’t coordinating with each other. We also noticed some torque steer, which is when the vehicle pulls to one side due to hard acceleration. It’s particularly common in EVs because of their strong torque.

The EX90’s window sticker says it is good for 308 miles between charges. We’ll put it through our 70-mph highway range test to see how long it can go on a road trip.

The EX90 has what Volvo calls a “driver understanding system.” It’s a driver monitoring setup that uses two cameras to track the driver’s eyes. If it senses that the driver may be distracted, drowsy, or otherwise nonresponsive, Volvo says the vehicle will issue warnings and, if necessary, safely stop the vehicle and call for help. So far, it’s proven less annoying than the one in the EX30, although we don’t know if that’s due to how it’s tuned or because the screen arrangement is less distracting.

Volvo’s Pilot Assist active driving assistance has 16 ultrasonic sensors, eight cameras, and five radar systems that work together with a lidar sensor to interpret the vehicle’s surroundings in darkness and in light, with precision to a single centimeter. There’s also an interior radar system that can sound an alert if kids or pets are mistakenly left in the vehicle while parked.

BSW sounded its audible and visual alerts even when the car was stopped at a light and other cars were pulling up in an adjacent lane. It did so even when we didn’t have a turn signal activated. The experience was annoying enough that we could foresee some drivers turning off BSW entirely so as not to have to deal with it. It says something about the EX90 that we couldn’t determine whether this was an intentional decision or a software error.

Even with lane keeping assistance turned off, the overly intrusive lane departure warning system would occasionally “grab” the steering wheel and alert us that we needed to pay attention to driving. As one of our testers put it, “This car is not at a state of development or polish to implicate anyone other than itself.”

There’s no gap setting for adaptive cruise control (ACC)

When you activate its ACC, the car decides if it wants to tailgate the car in front of you or leave a gap big enough for every impatient driver to cut you off. You’re at its mercy. We think every car equipped with ACC should have a way for the driver to set how much distance to maintain from the car in front.