The Volvo EX90, Volvo Cars’ new fully electric flagship SUV, has been named a finalist in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards for 2023 in the Automotive category.
The Innovation by Design Awards, which can be found in the September 2023 issue of Fast Company, honor the designers and businesses solving the most crucial problems of today and anticipating the pressing issues of tomorrow. The competition, now in its 12th year, features a range of blue-chip companies, emerging startups, and hungry young talents. It is one of the most sought-after design awards in the industry.
The Automotive category of Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards honors projects that make the driving experience safer, more pleasant, and more sustainable. The Volvo EX90 is designed to deliver on all three components: pushing the industry forward into a new era of safety while providing zero tailpipe emissions and a relaxing, luxurious driving experience for seven.
The Volvo EX90 represents a new era of safety for Volvo Cars while supporting their plan to become a fully-electric car company by 2030. A true seven-seater, the Volvo EX90 further raises the standards in safety and a more sustainable lifestyle. Revealed on November 9, 2022, the Volvo EX90 rides on a dedicated electric platform that eliminates the need for luxury car buyers to decide between practicality and full electrification by offering up to 300 miles of tailpipe-emission-free driving range and the ability to charge from 10-80 percent in about 30 minutes.
The level of standard safety in the Volvo EX90 is higher than any Volvo car before it. It’s designed to understand the driver and its surroundings to help keep you, your loved ones, and others in traffic safer. It is also designed to get smarter and safer over time, as it learns from new data and receives updates over-the-air.
The sensors—one long-range lidar, five radars, eight cameras, and 16 ultrasonic sensors—don’t get tired or distracted. They are designed to respond and react when you’re just a fraction too late. Our lidar, delivered by Luminar, can sense the road in front of you and is designed to be able to see small objects approximately two football fields ahead in day or night, and even at highway speeds. Lidar, which comes as standard on the Volvo EX90, can give the driver more time to act and avoid dangerous, yet common, driving situations. The advanced exterior sensor set works hand in hand with our new driver understanding system. Consisting of a capacitive steering wheel and 2 camera-based gaze sensors, it allows for a deeper understanding of when the driver is distracted or sleepy and will help create a preventive shield of safety you don’t know is there until you need it. Thanks to the state-of-the-art sensor set including lidar, it is the first Volvo that’s hardware-ready for unsupervised driving in the future.
The Volvo EX90 is now available for pre-order in the United States at volvocars.com/us. It will be available well-equipped for under $80,000. All Americas-bound Volvo EX90 models are expected to be built at the plant in Charleston (Ridgeville), South Carolina.
Read Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards complete list here.
