Volvo is touting the EX60’s range and charging speed ahead of its official debut

Volvo has begun to reveal some details about its upcoming mid-size electric SUV. EX60before its official debut on January 21. The EX60 will have an estimated range of 400 miles (or 810 km based on Europe’s generous WLTP standard). That’s a lot more range than any previous Volvo EV – at least until then The ES90 sedan has a range of 434 miles He comes out. The EX60 will be the first car to benefit from the automaker’s new mass production process to reduce weight and improve manufacturing efficiency.

“One of the things we wanted to do was create an electric car without any compromises,” Akhil Krishnan, head of EX60 program management, told me. “Choosing electric driving should not be a compromise for you, so that was very important to us.”

To this end, improving the vehicle’s range and charging time was one of the most important goals of Krishnan and his team. They wanted to turn “range anxiety” into “range comfort,” meaning the driver would have so much range that it wouldn’t become a liability — similar to the way consumers don’t choose gasoline cars based on tank size.

But scope alone is not enough; Charging speed was also crucial. Volvo conducted extensive customer research and found that many EV owners felt forced to plan their lives around charging stops, often waiting 40 minutes or more, Krishnan said. Volvo wanted the EX60 to fit into natural human recesses instead. For example, if a driver stops for 10 minutes to get coffee or use the bathroom, the car should be ready to start again within that time.

The EX60 should meet that standard thanks to its 800V architecture, a first for Volvo. Other automakers, such as Hyundai and Kia, have emerged amid declining demand for electric vehicles with their fast-charging, 800-volt vehicles, and now Volvo wants to do the same. The EX60 can charge from 10 to 80 percent in 19 minutes, or add 168 miles of range in just 10 minutes, when using a 400-kW fast charger.

Of course, finding a charger that can produce such speeds can be a problem, especially here in the US – but it’s definitely getting better. Krishnan said Volvo’s goal is to deliver excellent charging performance not only on 400-kilowatt chargers but also on the more common 250-kilowatt units.

The car is built on Volvo’s new SPA3 platform, designed exclusively for electric vehicles, without any of the old limitations of combustion engines. The EX60 doesn’t rely on any battery breakthroughs to achieve its improved range – the nickel-cobalt-manganese chemistry is the same as the rest of the EV range – but it does rely on advances in manufacturing, such as massive emission and the use of a structural battery pack, to reduce weight and improve vehicle safety. It will also include pre-conditioning the battery so that the battery is at the right temperature for optimal charging to help maintain those high speeds.

Krishnan said the new platform not only enables weight savings, but also lower costs, with estimated component-level savings of 20 to 35 percent, helping to keep prices competitive with gas and hybrid equivalents. Volvo said it intends to price the EX60 at the same price as the XC60 plug-in hybrid model, which now starts at about $63,000.

Volvo also offers for the first time a 10-year global battery warranty covering up to 240,000 kilometres. This extends the company’s previous coverage of eight years and, according to Krishnan, reflects confidence in its in-house battery development and manufacturing capabilities.

The EX60 will have other tricks up its sleeve too, including car-to-home and car-to-grid functions as standard across all markets and models. Volvo has already announced a partnership with Swedish power supplier Vattenfall to explore how the EX60 and other Volvo EVs could help with grid stability and balance.

Krishnan sees the EX60 as an important piece that was missing from Volvo’s electric vehicle strategy: a family SUV that’s more affordable than the automaker’s $80,000 three-row EX90. “So, it’s a very big market for cars,” he said.

The EX60 will be manufactured at Volvo’s factory in Gothenburg, with production scheduled to begin in the first half of 2026.