Volvo ES90 "crosses the barrier" between a saloon and an SUV

Car company Volvo has unveiled the ES90, a car that aims to combine the elegance of a saloon car with practicality of an SUV.

Launched today, the Volvo ES90 has the profile of a saloon, or sedan, but with a raised ground clearance that gives it an SUV feel.

"So the first thing I'd say about this car is that it is kind of in a class of its own," Volvo global head of design Jermey Offer told Dezeen.

"It's not the typical sedan," he continued. "It takes the elegance of a sedan, or a saloon car, and combines that with the adaptability and practicality of an SUV – so it's slightly higher off the ground," he continued.

It was designed to continue Volvo's long history of creating safe and practical cars.

"Volvo is known predominantly for practicality and safety, which is why I think this is a great car for us because it enables all of the features that you get from an SUV but in a salon," Offer said.

"It's more sedan, but it has an elevated feel that kind of crosses the barrier between those two."

Along with the raised ground clearance, the car has a spacious interior similar to an SUV that was made possible due to its long wheelbase of 3.1 metres.

The car's interior was designed to be spacious and allow users to access the multitude of digital technology within. It has six interior ambient light themes, an advanced air purification system, 25 separate speakers as well as a 14.5-inch centre screen and a nine-inch driver display.

"The interior of the car has as much to do with kind of kinetic architecture as it does automotive design or product design or industrial design," said Offer.

"This is about how people use a space, how we navigate through a physical space and how we interact with digital interfaces within that space," he continued.

"So it's very much a kind of the physical attributes of the car, very much a portal to the software-based experiences that it enables as well as obviously getting from A to B."

According to Offer, the car aims to build on Volvo's heritage, along with its commitment to being fully electrified by 2030.

"I would say our design philosophy and the company philosophy is very interesting and that has led to the design of this particular car," said Offer.

"So it's a culmination of the way that we feel as a company, in the way we operate as a company, that has led the decisions that have made this car."

Part of this includes ensuring that the interior has a premium feel.

"This is very much building on that heritage," said Offer. "So things like material honesty, for example, is something that we're really keen to extol the virtues of premium touch points."

"There's a lot said in the automotive industry about quality and Volvo is absolutely at the pinnacle of that – I think we really do make sure that the parts of the car that the user touches feel premium."

Another element of this is safety. Along with a strong safety cage, the car has a range of active safety systems including an array of sensors, one lidar system, five radars, seven cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors.

According to Offer, this has contributed to making the car Volvo's safest ever.

"I can't talk about other manufacturers, but certainly it's the safest car that Volvo has ever produced," he said.

"And let me put it this way, Volvo have a pretty good back catalogue of safe cars. It's something that we are well known for and that this car really does take to the next level."

The photography is courtesy of Volvo.

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