There’s a fair chance anyone coming from the plasticky confines of an i5, or the cluttered cockpit of an EQE, will be blown away by the ambience of the ES90 – especially one with the lighter ‘Dawn’ colourway (you can option a charcoal-hued roofliner for £245, but we have no idea why you would). It’s a stunningly pleasant place to be, and we say this despite the bolt-on presence of Volvo’s latest 14.5in central infotainment tablet. The material mix comprises Nordico – Volvo’s soft, proprietary leather-free upholstery made from recycled PET bottles mixed with pine resin (for real) – along with various natural fibres, FSC-certified birch and recycled magnesium. It is plush but fresh-feeling, and the use of gloss black plastic is sparing enough to have a nice impact.
In terms of perceived build quality, it is good but not universally BMW-good. The column stalks have a touch of play in them, for example, and there are some harder plastics that are carefully colour-matched to the soft materials but, when you do come into contact with them, give off a whiff of an airline cabin. It’s a minor qualm, because in general this is arguably the nicest cabin in the class. More switchgear would elevate it even further. For example, we would rather not have to select the rear portion of the cabin to control the window, or have to use the touchscreen when we rapidly need to control the mirrors. Or indeed alter the lights. A foglight needs a physical button, surely.
The ES90 gets things back on track with ergonomics. The driving position strikes an excellent balance of being lifted yet planted. Space is also generous, particularly the rear knee room, which is class-leading. If Volvo had sought to engineer cutouts into the battery, into which back-seat passengers could park their feet and not have their knees quite so high, the ES90 would offer a bona fide limousine experience, especially with the natural light that floods in from the panoramic roof (just as well given the rear screen is supercar-tiny).
As for boot space, at 424 litres it is only average, though the hatchback design does mean the ES90 will swallow more than perhaps the official figure accounts for (BMW i5: 520 litres). You do also get a small but useful tray in the funk.
Multimedia
Volvo’s Google-based infotainment feels fresh and contemporary, and we certainly have no complaints regarding the graphics or latency – both are top-notch. There’s also a lot of EV-related information that can easily be garnered with a prod or three, and the ability to put your navigation route onto the little driver display, keeping the main touchscreen free for whatever else you might like, is a neat touch.
The ‘contextual’ toolbar, which presents you with the shortcuts it thinks you might need next, is also far less irritating in practice than you might think. Elsewhere, the standard Bose sound system is rich and detailed (and it’s possible to up the sonic ante further with a Bowers & Wilkins system), and the various Google Services on offer work well if you’re minded not to rig up Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
It feels like a mature, premium system befitting of the price tag. Until, that is, you need to drop the angle of the wing mirror in a hurry, which you can’t do because it requires you to make several prods of the touchscreen before using the steering wheel controls. And heaven help you if you’re already in reverse, because that means the display rigidly sticks to the reverse-camera feed, so you can’t access the mirror controls in the first place. Honestly, it’s surprising Volvo hasn’t yet remedied this obvious quirk.
