Volvo is starting to trickle out some details about its upcoming midsize electric SUV, the EX60, before its official debut January 21st. The EX60 will have an estimated range of 400 miles (or 810km based on the generous WLTP standard in Europe). That’s significantly more range than any previous Volvo EV — at least until the 434-mile-range ES90 sedan comes out. And the EX60 will be the first vehicle to benefit from the automaker’s new megacasting production process to reduce weight and improve manufacturing efficiency.
“One of the things that we wanted to do was to create an electric vehicle with no compromises,” Akhil Krishnan, head of program management for the EX60, told me. “It shouldn’t be a compromise for you to choose to drive electric, so that was very, very important for us.”
To that end, improving the vehicle’s range and charging time were chief among the goals of Krishnan and his team. They wanted to transform “range anxiety” into “range comfort,” meaning the driver would have so much range that it no longer becomes a hinderance — similar to how consumers don’t choose gasoline cars based on tank size.
But range alone is not enough; charging speed was also critical. Krishnan said that 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. Volvo wanted the EX60 to fit into natural human breaks instead. For instance, if a driver stops for 10 minutes to get coffee or use the restroom, the car should be ready to go again within that time.
The EX60 should meet that standard thanks to its 800-volt architecture, a first for Volvo. Other automakers, like Hyundai and Kia, have stood out amid cooling demand for EVs thanks to their fast-charging, 800-volt-architecture vehicles, and now Volvo wants to do the same. The EX60 can charge from 10–80 percent in 19 minutes, or add 168 miles of range in just 10 minutes, when using a 400kW fast charger.
But range alone is not enough; charging speed was also critical
Of course, finding a charger that can produce such speeds could be a problem, especially here in the US — but it’s certainly getting better. Krishnan said that Volvo’s aim is to deliver excellent charging performance not only on 400kW chargers but also on more common 250kW units.
The vehicle is built on Volvo’s new SPA3 platform, designed exclusively for electric vehicles, without any legacy constraints from combustion engines. The EX60 isn’t relying on any battery breakthroughs to achieve its improved range — the nickel-cobalt-manganese chemistry is the same as the rest of the EV lineup — but rather advancements in manufacturing, like megacasting and the use of a structural battery pack, to reduce weight and improve the vehicle’s integrity. It will also include battery preconditioning so the battery is at the right temperature for optimal charging to help sustain those higher speeds.
The new platform enables not just weight savings but also cost reductions, with estimated component-level savings of 20–35 percent, helping keep pricing competitive with gas and hybrid equivalents, Krishnan said. Volvo has said it intends to price the EX60 at around the same as the XC60 plug-in hybrid, which right now starts at around $63,000.
Volvo is also offering for the first time a global 10-year battery warranty covering up to 240,000km. This extends the company’s previous eight-year coverage 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 vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid functionality as standard across all markets and trims. Volvo has already announced a partnership with Swedish energy provider Vattenfall to explore how the EX60 and other Volvo EVs can help stabilize and balance the grid.
Krishnan sees the EX60 as a critical piece that was missing from Volvo’s EV strategy: a family SUV that’s more affordable than the automaker’s three-row, $80,000-plus EX90. “So it’s a very big addressable market for the car,” he said.
The EX60 will be built in Volvo’s Gothenburg factory, with production set to begin in the first half of 2026.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
