Deus EX60 Machina
January 22, 2026
Alex KiersteinThe consensus is that the new Volvo EX60 electric SUV needs to be a win.
Volvo describes the new 2027 EX60 EV SUV breathlessly. It will “end range anxiety,” the company declares, and “represents the next frontier in safety.”
The Volvo EX60 doesn’t actually have to conquer range anxiety itself to succeed. It just has to sell. And as dozens of articles here on Alloy have made clear in recent weeks, this is an EV market that has a number of automakers rethinking ICE powertrains or pivoting to hybrids.
Volvo sold 9,322 electric vehicles in 2025, compared to 81,322 conventional internal combustion and PHEV vehicles. Both figures are rounding errors in the grand scheme of the American car market. Thankfully Volvo’s public-facing projections for the EX60 seem realistic. It expects to sell 7,000 units a year; almost equivalent to the combined total sales for the smaller EX30 and larger EX90. And that makes sense, as the midsize option is usually the strongest seller.
Adding 7,000 units a year to its US sales would be significant for Volvo. So the situation is high-stakes, and per Automotive News, dealers are rattled. Their worries are many. One has to do with the EX90 rollout. Volvo took a huge financial and reputational hit on the botched launch of that electric EV, which was delayed by more than a year due to software issues, causing much frustration to those who’d preordered it.
Another is pricing. Volvo says the EX60 will start at around $60,000, on par with similar German EVs, but retailers told AN that the reputational damage suffered by the brand with the EX90 debacle indicate it’d have to undercut those rivals to succeed. That squares with my sense of the situation; Volvo has become a small player in a cutthroat segment, and without a price advantage I’m not sure how buyers would weight the EX60 against, say, an Audi Q6 E-Tron.
With that context, the product itself needs to be compelling. To my eye, the EX60 is handsome in a typically modern Volvo way. This is a five-place, two-row SUV, arguably the most conservative segment of the market, and few are likely to be offended by the EX60’s looks. The strong shoulder line, particularly at the rear quarter where the taillight and rear pillars kink, is subtle but attractive.
The interior looks great, with a layered dash with a strong horizontal element. It is a little less imposing than the EX90’s more monolithic dash, and the squircle steering wheel (whatever you think of those) looks concept car-y, and therefore futuristic. That said, it’s less distinct, less Scandinavian, than other Volvo models. Not sure I’d peg it as a Volvo without the brand badge on the wheel.
Aesthetics are subjective, but hardware is not. The hardware and the software stack running the car’s connected systems are critical to the EX60’s success. At least on paper, things look promising. There will be three drivetrain options. The base rear-wheel-drive P6 will make 369 hp and provide up to 310 miles of range from a 83 kWh battery. The all-wheel-drive P10 dual-motor makes 503 hp for 320 miles of range from 95 kWh. The top-line P12 AWD provides 671 hp, 117 kWh, and up to 400 miles of range. Several wheel sizes are offered; larger wheel sizes reduce range somewhat. The 800V architecture allows up to 370-kW DC fast charging.
More controversially, the EX60 will be Volvo’s first vehicle to offer an in-car AI experience. Google’s Gemini system is integrated into the car’s systems, offering the promise of a true natural language interface with greater capabilities. This is real software-defined-vehicle (SDV) pitch deck stuff, and what is more important than Volvo’s claims about what its HuginCore OS and the various connected systems can do together is how it’ll actually work (or not).
After the EX90 fiasco and facing serious financial pressure in a tough environment, the EX60’s ambitious software features have to work well from day one. Would failure be an existential crisis for the company? Maybe not alone, but as Brett Berk explored a few weeks ago, what Volvo really needs to do is convince Geely to keep the money flowing. The EX60 needs to earn its keep so Volvo can keep the lights on.
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