Electric
The electric sibling to Volvo’s best-selling car of all time has a lot riding on it…
Published: 21 Jan 2026
Between 1974 and 1993, Volvo built and sold over 2.6 million versions of the blocky, bulletproof 240, making it the company’s best-selling model of all time.
Until the XC60 came along. Since 2008, Volvo has shifted over 2.7 million versions of the handsome SUV, making this the new best-selling Volvo ever. Both are heartland, mainstream family cars.
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That was then, and this is now. The new Volvo EX60 is the electric sibling to that best-selling XC60, and Volvo understands the scale of the task ahead of it: it enters, in Volvo’s own words, “the largest electric segment globally”. Not just regular shark infested waters then, but sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads.
Its rivals include the Tesla Model Y – only the world’s best-selling EV – and the BMW iX3, to name but two. That latter car’s a TopGear Award winner and the vanguard of BMW’s entire electrification strategy; literally, it is Munich’s gamechanger.
Big hitters then. To counter, the Volvo EX60 comes in swinging, because in AWD guise this handsome Swede is capable of up to 505 miles of driving from a single charge. That’s a handful of miles more than the iX3 and more than any sentient human is likely to accomplish in one hit.
Recovering the bulk of that range is also said to be super speedy too. The EX60 runs an 800V setup that allows around 210 miles of range to be hosed into the battery in 10 minutes, if the hose is a 400kW one. Ten minutes.
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As we’ve covered already, it’s no ordinary battery. Volvo has introduced a ‘cell to body’ system, which does away with bolting individual cells into a pack and then bolting that pack into the body. Here, the cells are inserted directly into the next-gen ‘SPA3’ architecture, so the casing strengthens the body and the battery. Makes it lighter, basically, though it’s still a proper heavyweight: Volvo quotes between 2,115kg to 2,330kg depending on spec.
Like its rival the iX3, the EX60’s entire operating system is defined by the ‘Superset’ tech stack that’ll underpin every single electric Volvo in the future. It’s got the latest version of something called ‘HuginCore’ – named, of course, after the bird in Norse mythology – that “empowers the car to think, process and act”. Here it’s powered by NVIDIA and Qualcomm tech that Volvo reckons offers up “ultra-fast” processing power. Less screen lag and better responses, basically.
Three versions of the regular EX60 will be available in three battery sizes, along with just one trim available in EX60 Cross Country guise (pictured below). For the EX60, there’s the single motor, rear-drive, 369bhp ‘P6’ version (83kWh battery), a twin motor, AWD ‘P10’ with 503bhp (95kWh battery), and the big boy ‘P12’, again a twin motor EV with a whopping 671bhp (117kWh battery).
More numbers, so strap in: the P6 gets 354lb ft, up to 385 miles of range and will go from 0-62mph in 5.9s. The P10 posts 524lb ft, 410 miles of range, and 0-62mph in 4.6s. The P12 gets an exceedingly healthy 583lb ft, the headline 505 miles of range (up to), and a 0-62mph time of just 3.9s. Nobody needs to go from 0-62mph in 3.9s in a family SUV, but hey, it’ll do it.
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The EX60 CC (pictured here) will only come as the P10 version for now (0-62mph in 4.7s, 398 miles of range). Later, there’ll be a P12 version too. This one sits 20mm higher as you’d expect.
All four top out at 112mph, get the choice of passive or semi-active suspension, and are absolutely brimmed with tech. Like Google’s AI assistant Gemini, which is “deeply integrated with your car and lets you have natural and personalised conversations without having to remember specific commands”.
Along with the traditional Volvo hardware – multi-adaptive seat belts, safety cage, restraints and other safety measures – it’ll also be continually updated over time via OTAs.
And speaking of updates, Volvo’s taken the XC60 and run with it, updating that language to fit the EV era. Like all modern Volvos, it’s a handsome car, with the company’s signature head- and tail-lights, a boxy(ish) silhouette, big wheels and lots of space. The CC version gets the classic wheelarch claddings, black mouldings and a slightly wider track.
There’s a pano roof, lots of “natural and high-end materials” inside, lots of storage, split-fold rear seats, and a B&W stereo that gets speakers in the headrests of the four main seats.
“The new, all-electric EX60 changes the game in terms of range, charging and price and represents a new beginning for Volvo Cars and our customers,” said (returning) Volvo boss Håkan Samuelsson. “With this car, we remove all remaining obstacles for going electric.”
Only time will tell whether it can overcome the Model Y and iX3 and Q6 e-tron and Ioniq 5 and e-Macan and electric GLC shaped obstacles that now stand before it and the scale of its new task: to become a next-gen best-seller.
