14:50 26-12-2025

Volvo EX90 earns IIHS Top Safety Pick+ with caveats on lighting and child-seat anchors

Volvo’s EX90 electric SUV earns IIHS Top Safety Pick+, with notes on headlight performance and child-seat anchors. See pricing, charging, and tech highlights.

Volvo’s EX90, the brand’s first fully electric flagship, earned IIHS’s top honor, the Top Safety Pick+. According to the institute, the family SUV performed strongly in crashworthiness and frontal crash-prevention tests, but it also attracted specific notes in two areas that count in everyday driving.

First, lighting. IIHS rated the standard projector-type LED headlights with automatic high-beam assist as “average” in several scenarios: low beams delivered limited visibility on straight sections and tight turns, and on one gentle bend the results were insufficient. There were also remarks about the high beams in certain situations. On dark roads, this is the sort of detail that affects confidence behind the wheel.

Second, child-seat usability. The lower anchors in the second row sit too deep; in the third row they’re hard to reach and require noticeable force to secure. It was also noted that the top tether in the center position of the second row can be mistaken for another piece of hardware. For parents, those quirks are the kind that slow you down during everyday routines.

Even so, the EX90 made the 2025 Top Safety Pick+ list. The XC90 mild hybrid and the XC90 PHEV were also named, for vehicles built after December 2024. The EX90 rides on the SPA2 platform and uses a centralized Nvidia Drive computer designed for expanded driver-assistance capability.

In the U.S., the EX90 remains a pricey proposition, starting at $81,290 including destination, while the Twin Motor Performance version adds power—510 hp instead of 402—and quicker acceleration. Charging from 10 to 80 percent takes about 30 minutes, and from 2026 the NACS connector is expected to replace CCS1, providing access to the Supercharger network.