2026 Volvo EX60 P10 AWD Plus | UK Review

BMW and Mercedes already have their EV SUVs on sale - but might Volvo's be the most desirable of all?

By Sam Sheehan / Wednesday, 19 August 2026 / Loading comments

While the P10 version of Volvo’s new EX60 isn’t the headline-grabbing P12 promising over 500 miles of range, it could be the most popular version of the BMW iX3 rival. With 510hp and a still-impressive 410 miles of on-paper range, it’s a fast, rangey and discreet alternative to the mostly German rivals. And from £56,860 it’s not only priced alongside the XC60 PHEV, it’s also bang on the money as far as squaring up to the electric competition is concerned. The P12’s 680hp output might raise more eyebrows, but could the P10 in fact be the most rounded response to the iX3 and GLC Electric?

Either way, it certainly gives us the first glimpse of what Volvo’s option to the class can do. The statistics of our test car, a P10 AWD Plus, include 510hp and 524lb ft from a pair of motors, a 0-62mph time of 4.6 seconds and a single-speed top speed of 112mph. Keep it a fair few knots below that and for each of the battery’s 92 usable kilowatt hours, Volvo’s boffins reckon you’ll average 3.8 miles, which is actually a smidge less efficient than the P12 promises.

The incoming range-topper will have a larger 112kWh usable battery, bumping its weight up by 55kg compared to the P10 to 2.4 tonnes. The entry-level and rear-motor variant, the P6, dips below 2.2 tonnes with its 80kWh of usable cells, making it lighter than the Germans and a close rival to France’s light (for the class, we hasten to add) A390. And yet all EX60 versions promise to be a fair bit more practical than the rest, so much so that the Volvo actually beats both the iX3 and GLC Electric for boot space, albeit by three litres, with 523 litres in the back. Open the bonnet and there are 58 litres in there too.

More impressive is the EX60’s rear legroom, not in the length sense, because all of the competition, Alpine aside, has plenty of knee room, but in the vertical sense. Volvo’s SPA3 electric platform manages to squeeze its slim battery as low as possible in the floor, and the result is a petrol car-like footwell for back seat passengers, with the added bonus of a flat, tunnel-less floor. Headroom is also very good with lots of surplus space for a six footer. It means that out of the gates, there are clear practical reasons to take an EX60 over the alternatives.

The cabin is well built with a nice, tightly-fitted blend of leathers (which are synthetic in base models and genuine in higher ones) and colours, illustrated by our light cream car’s cabin. On a sunny day, the panoramic sunroof means the cabin’s space is accentuated by an airy feeling, which is just as present in the front seats. If you push back the centre console’s cup-holder tray, it opens up clear space between the front passengers’s legs, while the digital instrument cluster is pushed back towards the windscreen, meaning you’re not cocooned by tech like you are in a GLC Electric.

That said, the tech is still the centre-piece of the cabin, as far as controlling features is concerned. Genuinely smart Google Gemini AI means you can use the voice assistant to handle some things, including asking it for dinner recipes tonight or, more appropriately, giving specific charging station requests to suit your needs. But it's a shame to see Volvo follow suit of the competition and keep the climate control settings on screen. It’s easy enough to make tweaks to heater and fan speed, but fan direction requires too many seconds of attention. Button fans should note that Porsche’s Macan and Alpine’s A390 hold an ergonomic advantage here.

Somewhat unexpectedly, given the climate control situation, you can at least shortcut switching-off of the most annoying ADAS stuff to buttons on the steering wheel, so, for example, you can cancel lane keep and speed limit assist with just a couple of prods. That’s a relief, because the former in particular is very argumentative if you leave it on and find yourself treading over faded road markings. At least Volvo’s bongs are among the least annoying, should you forget how to cancel the rest.

The soft bongs and indicator ticks set the tone rather nicely for the EX60, which is quiet on the road and impressively refined even at higher speeds. There’s some road hiss on coarser surfaces on our car’s 21-inch and 255-section tyres, but not much. Certainty versus the even bigger-wheeled iX3 we drove earlier this year, the Volvo is more insulated, and it’s more comfortable as well. That is helped by the fact the P10 and P12 get air suspension, something the iX3 doesn’t get, and that ensures it’s not only comfier than the BMW, but potentially the Mercedes and others as well.

It doesn’t matter if you switch the suspension from Soft to Normal or Hard, the EX60 P10 is able to soak up potholes and speedhumps alike. The softer setting does, predictably, make the EX60 lean and pitch at pace. But it’s never more than one compression of bump or load absorption away from dealing with the physics. Firm tidies things up and definitely allows for more exuberant corner entry speeds, but the steering is too void of feel and the balance is too safe to make the EX60 feel as sporting as the iX3 - and the Macan has even more clear air behind it in this regard than the Beemer.

What’s impressive though is how unfazed the Volvo is. The oval-shaped wheel is smaller than you’d expect so your inputs can be more aggressive, and yet the EX60 remains bonded to the tarmac. It takes some very prodigious requests for power in the middle of a corner to feel anything close to rear-axle-motivated dynamism; the EX60 offers tremendous cross country pace with none of the plumbed-in agility of its sportier alternatives. A Macan EV would be offering kicks of oversteer, both an iX3 and GLC would be hinting at the same, while an A390 would be nimbler than all over the front axle.

And yet, there’s joy in the way the EX60 goes about things. The adjustable regen offers everything from a fully off setting to a strong, city-friendly one-pedal mode - and the brake pedal feels natural and well weighted no matter which you settle on. The steering is light and accurate, and the power delivery - which peaks at enough to have the P10 charging to 62mph in just 4.6 seconds - is easily modulatable. It never gives you that headache feeling other performance-focused EVs so often can. The EX60 P10, quick as it is, flows rather than explodes along a route.

Safe to say this all bodes very well for the £65k P12, which won’t just have a near-700hp output to give you bragging rights at the pub, but also an on-paper 503-mile range to make life easier on the go. Will it actually achieve that range? Volvo claims a P10-beating 3.89 miles per kWh for the top car, which, even with a sprinkling of pessimism and a heavy right foot, means there’s good reason to believe a 300-mile-plus range will be easily achievable. For those of us who spend many hours on the motorway, that matters. Not least because it means you can avoid the overpriced service station chargers, saving pounds for the things that matter most in life. Like a petrol-powered performance car for the weekends.

SPECIFICATION | 2026 VOLVO EX60 P10 AWD PLUS

Engine: permanent magnet synchronous (rear) and asynchronous (front) motors, 92kWh usable battery
Transmission: single-speed auto, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 510
Torque (lb ft): 524
0-62mph: 4.6 seconds
Top speed: 112mph
Weight: 2,350kg (running order mass)
Efficiency: 3.8 miles/kWh
Electric range: 410 miles (WLTP), 800-volt DC 370kW charging for 10-80% in 16mins
Price: £59,860 (price as tested; £61,645 with £795 21-inch diamond cut wheels, £795 Aurora Silver exterior paint, Dark Theme £195)