Volvo’s Next EV Will Do Over 500 Miles On A Charge

Are you a member of the bespectacled twin-based Scottish pop duo The Proclaimers? Would you like to own an electric car that pays homage to your biggest hit by going 500 miles on a single charge? We have good news for you, Craig and/or Charlie, because your pool of options is about to double.

Currently, the only EV you can buy, in Europe at least, that can hit the magical 500 mile mark according to official numbers is the new BMW iX3, and it gets in by the skin of its teeth – 500 miles is the exact maximum range figure of the car in its most efficiency-friendly spec.

But it’s about to be unseated, because the upcoming Volvo EX60, set to be fully unveiled on 21 January, eclipses that with a WLTP range of – drum roll please – 503 miles. We’re talking marginal stuff here, people.

Still, it wasn’t that long ago that the early wave of mass-market EVs could barely scrape a three-figure range, so this is still impressive stuff, especially as Volvo says this is on a dual-motor, all-wheel drive car, which tends to be a more range-sapping setup. Any currently unannounced single-motor cars could go even further. What’s more, thanks in part to its 800V architecture, it’ll charge quickly too, with Volvo saying it’s possible to add up to 211 miles of range in as little as 10 minutes on a fast enough charger.

There is, of course, a big asterisk around all of this, in that the range figure was calculated in tightly controlled lab conditions, and real-world conditions mean your mileage will almost definitely vary, and not in an upward direction. As for the charging speed, you’ll currently struggle to find a charger anywhere, especially in the UK, that can top up your battery at that rate.

Set to essentially be an electric equivalent to the XC60, the EX60 will mark Volvo’s arrival in a hotly contested segment populated by the likes of the aforementioned iX3, the new Mercedes GLC EV, the Audi Q6 E-Tron, Tesla Model Y and quite literally some other cars that aren’t interesting enough for us to remember at the moment.

It’ll sit on an evolution of Volvo’s scalable SPA chassis, and is the brand’s first car to be built using a process called ‘mega casting’. This sees loads of parts that would otherwise be individually produced replaced with one giant, single casting, which saves weight and thus improves efficiency.

So, finally, if you’re able to perfectly replicate the conditions of a WLTP test lab, here comes an EV that’ll allow you to drive 500 miles. Still waiting on one that’ll drive 500 more, though.