2026 Volvo EX90 Twin Motor Performance real-life range test with 21-inch wheels and summer tires

Introduction: The 2026 Volvo EX90 Twin Motor Performance is Volvo’s flagship electric SUV, and its launch path has been anything but ordinary. After delays, software updates and a mid-cycle refresh that arrived almost as quickly as production began, the updated EX90 now has to prove its efficiency in everyday conditions. In this test, we examine how the most powerful EX90 performs in the real world, using 21-inch wheels and summer tires.

The EX90 occupies a surprisingly open space in the electric SUV market. Among established European brands, the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV is one of the few direct rivals offering a fully electric seven-seat SUV of similar size and luxury positioning. The Hyundai Ioniq 9 and Kia EV9 bring comparable practicality, but they generally do not aim at the same premium interior atmosphere. This leaves the EX90 with a relatively comfortable niche, at least on paper.

With a large 106 kWh usable battery, the EX90 Twin Motor Performance should be capable of respectable range, as long as its energy consumption can be kept under control. That is far from guaranteed for such a large, heavy electric SUV. Our test focuses on real-world efficiency at constant speeds, not optimistic WLTP figures or manufacturer estimates.

The testing was carried out on our usual routes, running the same track both ways at constant speeds and in the same controlled manner as every other car in our range-test archive. The ambient temperature was 23°C, making this an ideal summer-weather result and a clean baseline for comparison.

At 60 km/h, the EX90 Performance is genuinely impressive. Despite its size, weight and dual-motor drivetrain, it manages to compete with much smaller and less powerful vehicles, which normally hold an advantage at lower speeds. This makes the EX90 surprisingly efficient in town, on slower country roads or in light traffic.

At 90 km/h, the consumption remains remarkably controlled. This is the speed limit on many European rural roads, so journeys that avoid constant motorway speeds can still be completed with very good real-world range. For such a large SUV, the efficiency figure is more than respectable.

At 130 km/h, however, physics starts to have its say. The EX90 begins to pay the price for its dimensions, frontal area and weight. The consumption climbs significantly, to 25.0 kWh/100km, and the real-world range drops to 424 km. It remains efficient for a full-size electric SUV, but its advantage over direct competitors becomes much narrower at highway speeds.

That matters because cars of this type are often expected to handle long-distance trips, usually dominated by motorway or highway driving. The EX90 still performs strongly in the seven-seat SUV category, but when five-seat options are included in the comparison, the picture becomes more mixed. One important compensation is Volvo’s new 800V architecture, which improves charging performance and helps keep highway stops shorter, even when consumption is higher.

The Performance trim is also the more interesting choice than it may first appear. It offers much more power while delivering very similar range figures to the regular Twin Motor version, for a relatively small price difference. A single-motor EX90 with the large battery would probably have been the range-focused option, but Volvo does not offer that combination. Based on this test, if we were choosing, we would be tempted to go straight for the Performance.

The figures above can be used to estimate how the 2026 Volvo EX90 Twin Motor Performance will behave in your own mix of city, country and highway driving. As the data shows, its strengths lie in lower-speed efficiency and long-distance usability when paired with the benefits of its 800V charging system.