The Volvo ES90 ‘Sedan’ Shows Volvo Is Entering Its SUV Design Era

We view the 2026 Volvo ES90 as a sedan, but Volvo won’t commit to that label. On the contrary, the company seems to be proud that its new electric flagship doesn’t neatly fit into any category; the car’s accompanying press release notes that some onlookers might see “a fastback, or even hints of an SUV.” It’s interesting language coming from the same brand that’s given us both the conventionally handsome EX90 electric SUV well as the regal S90 executive four-door in the recent past. It also signals a shift: The Volvo that previously let sedans and wagons dictate the soul of its design has finally handed the reins over to SUVs.

All car companies evolve their lineups to fit contemporary tastes and, automakers hope, lead trends, too. Yet, the introduction of the genre-blurring ES90 has inspired us to place Volvo’s aesthetic evolution under a microscope today. The Swedish marque once had a reputation for stark three-box sedans and two-box wagons, owing to a theme that began in the 1970s and continued to inform its products all the way through the ’90s. The rolling fortress vibe perfectly fit Volvo’s brand-establishing marketing around superior safety.

In the new millennium, perhaps less concerned with creative distinctiveness and more keen on moving units, Volvo tapered off most of those sharp angles and created an arguably more mainstream lineup. It still occasionally ventured into strange territory (see the first-gen XC90 and its amorphous taillights), but for the most part, the aughts marked Volvo’s most visually generic era. Nevertheless, some of those cars have aged quite well.

Heading into the 2010s until the early part of this decade, Volvo evolved again, leaning into the sleek-yet-warm beauty often associated with Scandinavian design. This was the era where the brand coined its “Thor’s Hammer” headlights, and embraced wide grilles and clean cockpits with long, beautiful trim pieces; a carefully crafted ethos that was conventionally elegant, but still felt distinctly Volvo.

And I say that as a professional critic, not a fan. As a chaotic maximalist in my personal taste, I don’t find Swedish minimalism all that appealing. At the same time, there’s no denying that models like the second-gen XC90, S90, and their contemporary stablemates were objectively well-designed cars.

Across all of those evolutions, it always felt like the company’s design language was optimized for a killer sedan and wagon combo first, even as SUVs rose in popularity and prominence within its lineup. Now, with the introduction of the ES90, we’re seeing that priority flipped; the “sedan” is now following the precedent set by an SUV.

Sure, the EX90 that Volvo first introduced two years ago doesn’t resemble a wild departure from the gasoline and hybrid XC90s on roads today, but using that vehicle to usher in Volvo’s new look hinted that SUVs would set the tone going forward. Yesterday’s introduction of the jacked-up, stocky ES90 pretty much confirmed that plan.

I don’t have to remind anyone that SUVs shrunken to car-like dimensions have been and remain abundantly popular. But cars that try to grow into SUVs have, historically, been more of a mixed bag. The AMC Eagle, Honda Accord Crosstour, Volvo Cross Country models, and Audi Allroad come to mind. Cool vehicles, but with niche appeal. The extremely popular Tesla Model Y, if you lump it in with those others mentioned, might be the lone exception.

All that might make Volvo’s decision to car-ify the EX90 seem strange, but our Editor-in-Chief Kyle Cheromcha articulated the logic well in a discussion we were having here at The Drive: “Because of the Geely EV platform [on which the ES90 is based] and the overall market shift away from sedans, it’s easier technically and a safer bet to design a great-looking SUV first, then extend it out to a sedan. Which is how you end up with this thing. It’s not impossible to make an electric sedan or liftback look nice and low—the Porsche Taycan proves that—but that’s not the path Volvo is taking.”

This could be the end of the line for the classical sedan look at Volvo. I don’t want to veer into old-man-shaking-fist-at-cloud territory here, but while I could always appreciate the old S90’s beauty without wanting one, the ES90’s stretched Polestar 2 proportions, tall belt line, and skirts of black cladding don’t stir me emotionally. The EX90 looks good for what it is, but porting that SUV’s look to this marks an undeniable departure from the traditional beauty of the company’s outgoing sedans and wagons that had to be addressed.

If the EX90 was Volvo declaring its next-gen intentions and the ES90 confirmed them, then the Volvo we’re about to see will once again be different than the one we knew. That doesn’t mean sleek and beautiful has to die at the company, but it does mean that we’re about to see more cars pulling cues from SUVs—not the other way around.

Got your own hot take about Volvo’s new design direction? You know we want to hear about it. Comments are open as is the author’s inbox: andrew.collins@thedrive.com

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