As alluded to a moment ago, this car really is fabulously smooth and quiet at times. The raised hip point, set slightly incongruously against the saloon-like glasshouse, make it feel like a Rolls-Royce Phantom understudy – or at least it would, had Volvo finally cracked low-speed ride quality. Perhaps smaller wheels would have helped, but a fidgety trundle would seem to remain a chink in the case for plush, executive Volvos.
Launching the ES90 on a route that included snippets of the La Turbie hillclimb was also a bold move. The car weighs around 2.4 tonnes and is five metres long, with no switchbackfriendly rear-axle steering. It also has quite uncommunicative steering, a high scuttle and those teeth-itchingly kerbable alloys, all of which make it perfectly unsuited to the mountainside rat runs of the French Riviera.
And yet this car does have an ease about it even in tricky environments. It might lack rear-steer, but the turning circle is as tight as a BMW i5’s even when that car isfitted with Integral Active Steering. The steering is also elegantly sped, and the ES90 delivers a perfectly calibrated accelerator.
With the EPAS in its lighter map and the car’s forceful one-pedal mode deactivated, it flows along neatly, feeling narrower than an i5 or Mercedes EQE, albeit with more old-world limo ponderousness in the body movements. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and in fact it can be quite charming.
Upcoming four-wheel drive variants will be much quicker than the RWD car we’ve tested, but it’s doutbful they’ll add much to the car’s good road manners and general ease of use.
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