Imagine a car Volvo EX90 that can detect your baby’s breathing from the front seat. A vehicle that knows you’re tired before you do and gently intervenes. An SUV that doesn’t just react to crashes—it predicts and prevents them. Welcome to the Volvo EX90, the fully electric seven-seater that just earned Euro NCAP’s maximum five-star safety rating, cementing its position as one of the safest cars on Earth.
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The Gold Standard Achievement
In the most recent round of Euro NCAP safety testing, the fully electric Volvo EX90 SUV earned the maximum five-star rating, placing it among the highest-performing cars this year. This isn’t just another safety award—it’s validation of Volvo’s 55-year obsession with protecting human life.
The family SUV, available with up to seven seats, scored particularly high in both adult and child protection categories, demonstrating that when it comes to safeguarding the people you love most, the EX90 leads the pack.
Euro NCAP Five-Star Rating Breakdown:
| Category | EX90 Performance | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Rating | 5 stars (maximum) | Among highest-performing cars of 2024 |
| Adult Occupant Protection | Exceptionally high scores | Top-tier crash protection |
| Child Occupant Protection | Exceptionally high scores | Industry-leading child safety |
| Vulnerable Road Users | Strong performance | Protects pedestrians & cyclists |
| Safety Assist Systems | Advanced technology | Predictive and preventive features |
Euro NCAP is Europe’s leading independent car safety assessment program, helping customers make informed decisions about vehicle safety. Their five-star rating represents the pinnacle of automotive safety engineering.
55 Years of Real-World Research: The Volvo Difference
Åsa Haglund, head of Volvo Cars Safety Centre, emphasized that the EX90 builds on more than 55 years of real-world crash research, informing how they design cars for traffic situations people face every day—not just controlled test environments.
This is where Volvo’s philosophy diverges from competitors. While other manufacturers optimize for test scores, Volvo designs for survival.
Volvo’s Real-World Safety Approach:
| Data Source | Scale | Application |
|---|---|---|
| Real-world accidents analyzed | 50,000+ crashes | Actual collision scenarios |
| People involved in studies | 80,000+ individuals | Comprehensive injury data |
| Years of continuous research | 55+ years | Generational learning curve |
| Design focus | Daily traffic situations | Real-world protection priority |
The company utilizes data from more than 50,000 real-world accidents involving over 80,000 people. This data-driven approach ensures safety designs address actual traffic situations rather than just controlled test environments.
Physical crash testing combines with extensive virtual simulations to refine structural integrity before a single production vehicle rolls off the line.
Safe Space Technology: Your Personal Protection Bubble
The EX90 makes use of Volvo Cars’ Safe Space Technology, a bespoke suite of safety systems designed to work together to help protect people in and around the car.
Think of it as an invisible force field. Using advanced sensors, cameras, and radars, the car builds an understanding of its surroundings to help anticipate and mitigate potential risks.
Safe Space Technology Components:
| Technology | Function | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| LiDAR sensors | Long-range environment scanning | Detects hazards earlier |
| Advanced cameras | 360-degree visual monitoring | Complete situational awareness |
| High-resolution radars | Precise object tracking | Accurate threat assessment |
| Core computing platform | Real-time data processing | Instant hazard prediction |
| Over-the-air updates | Continuous improvement | Gets smarter over time |
The EX90 integrates high-performance core computing with a comprehensive sensor set, allowing the vehicle to process real-time data to anticipate potential hazards.
Over-the-air update capabilities enable Volvo to refine these functionalities throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle, meaning your EX90 gets safer the longer you own it—a revolutionary concept in automotive safety.
The Driver Understanding System: A TIME Best Invention
Here’s where the EX90 enters science fiction territory—except it’s real, available now, and recognized by TIME Magazine as one of 2024’s Best Inventions.
The driver understanding system uses real-time sensing technology to detect the driver’s state and provide support when needed—for example, when a driver may be tired, distracted or otherwise not fully capable of driving.
How Driver Understanding Works:
The system monitors:
- Eye movement and gaze direction
- Head position and orientation
- Steering input patterns
- Reaction times to alerts
- Overall attention levels
When it detects signs of fatigue or distraction, it intervenes progressively:
Intervention Levels:
| Warning Stage | System Response | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Early detection | Gentle visual/audio alerts | Prompt driver attention |
| Moderate concern | Stronger warnings, recommend break | Encourage rest stops |
| Critical situation | Pull-over assistance, emergency braking ready | Prevent accidents |
This isn’t just monitoring—it’s understanding. The difference is profound.
Full-Cabin Occupant Sensing: Never Leave Anyone Behind
Every parent’s nightmare is leaving a child in a hot car. The EX90 makes this impossible.
The EX90 comes with full-cabin occupant sensing to help prevent leaving loved ones behind in potentially dangerous situations.
Advanced radars can detect movements as subtle as a baby’s breathing and alert you if necessary.
Occupant Detection Capabilities:
| Sensitivity Level | Detection Type | Safety Application |
|---|---|---|
| Breathing detection | Infant/small child monitoring | Prevents hot car tragedies |
| Movement sensing | Restless children or pets | Comprehensive cabin awareness |
| Presence verification | Occupants in any seating position | Back seat reminder system |
| Exit monitoring | Door opening sequence | Ensures everyone exits safely |
Imagine parking at a grocery store. You’re juggling shopping bags, your phone rings, you’re distracted. The EX90 won’t let you forget your sleeping baby in the back seat. It’s that simple, and that lifesaving.
Crash Protection: When Prevention Isn’t Enough
Despite all the predictive technology, Volvo knows accidents still happen. That’s when the EX90’s structural engineering takes over.
In the event of a crash, its state-of-the-art restraint technology and structural design, tuned specifically for the EX90, are designed to help protect the driver and passengers.
EX90 Crash Protection Features:
- Safety cage construction: High-strength steel and aluminum structure absorbs impact energy
- Crumple zone engineering: Front and rear zones collapse predictably to dissipate force
- Advanced airbag system: Multiple airbags with adaptive deployment based on impact severity
- Restraint systems: Pre-tensioning seatbelts and load limiters optimize occupant retention
- Side-impact protection: Door beams and floor reinforcement protect against T-bone collisions
- Rollover protection: Reinforced roof structure maintains cabin integrity in rollovers
The EX90’s architecture is specifically designed for electric vehicles, with battery placement and weight distribution optimized for both performance and safety.
Awards Pile Up: World Luxury Car Champion
This latest result adds to the growing list of honours for the EX90, which also includes the prestigious World Luxury Car title awarded earlier this year.
Volvo EX90 Recognition:
| Award | Issuing Body | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Five-Star Safety Rating | Euro NCAP | Highest independent safety validation |
| World Luxury Car 2024 | World Car Awards | Top luxury vehicle globally |
| TIME Best Invention 2024 | TIME Magazine | Driver understanding system |
This triple crown—safety excellence, luxury recognition, and innovation award—positions the EX90 as more than just a safe SUV. It’s a comprehensive masterpiece of automotive engineering.
Volvo’s Record-Breaking 2024 Performance
The EX90’s success mirrors Volvo’s broader triumph. For the full year 2024, Volvo Car Group recorded a record-breaking core operating profit of SEK 27 billion, with revenue reaching an all-time high of SEK 400.2 billion and global sales hitting a record 763,389 cars.
These numbers prove consumers trust Volvo’s safety-first philosophy, voting with their wallets for vehicles that prioritize protecting human life above all else.
What Safety Actually Means in 2024
The automotive industry talks endlessly about safety ratings, but what does five stars really mean for you and your family?
Real-World Translation:
For parents: Your children are protected by the same crash research that has saved 80,000+ people over five decades
For commuters: Every daily drive benefits from technology that predicts hazards before your brain consciously registers them
For road trippers: Full-cabin sensing ensures everyone arrives safely, and driver monitoring prevents fatigue-related crashes
For urban drivers: Pedestrian and cyclist detection helps protect vulnerable road users in congested cities
For peace of mind: Euro NCAP’s independent testing validates Volvo’s claims—this isn’t marketing fluff, it’s verified protection
The Electric Advantage: Safety Through Design
Being fully electric gives the EX90 inherent safety advantages:
No engine block: The front of the vehicle is a massive crumple zone without a heavy engine creating dangerous intrusion
Low center of gravity: Battery placement in the floor reduces rollover risk compared to traditional SUVs
Instant torque control: Electric motors enable split-second stability interventions impossible with combustion engines
Simpler mechanics: Fewer moving parts mean fewer potential failure points in critical safety systems
The Competition: How Does EX90 Compare?
In the luxury electric SUV segment, the EX90 faces formidable competitors—Tesla Model X, BMW iX, Mercedes EQS SUV, and Audi e-tron. Yet the EX90’s five-star Euro NCAP rating, combined with its driver understanding system and full-cabin occupant sensing, provides safety features competitors simply don’t offer.
While Tesla emphasizes autonomous driving and BMW focuses on performance, Volvo remains laser-focused on its founding principle: protecting human life.
Availability: Where Can You Get One?
The Volvo EX90 is available now across Europe, with up to seven-seat configurations to accommodate families of all sizes. Deliveries have begun, and the vehicle is rolling into showrooms across the continent.
For buyers prioritizing safety above all else—particularly families with young children—the EX90 represents the current pinnacle of automotive protection technology.
The Bottom Line
Volvo Cars has long been a pioneer in automotive safety, and the EX90 is the latest example of that leadership, according to Åsa Haglund.
The five-star Euro NCAP rating isn’t just a badge—it’s the culmination of 55 years of obsessive dedication to protecting human life. From detecting your baby’s breathing to understanding when you’re too tired to drive safely, the EX90 doesn’t just meet safety standards. It redefines them.
The Euro NCAP result shows that commitment to real-world protection translates into top performance in independent safety tests, validating decades of research and engineering excellence.
