8:58 am, August 14, 2026
Volvo says customers moving from petrol cars to electric vehicles have often felt they were ‘making a compromise’ because of range anxiety and charging inconvenience.
The Swedish manufacturer made the statement as it outlined the thinking behind its new EX60 electric SUV, which is designed to appeal to new affluent EV customers, but also address concerns raised by existing customers around EV tech.
Volvo said it had spoken to XC60 owners interested in switching to an EV, as well as customers who had previously owned its first-generation electric models, the XC40 Recharge/EX40 and C40 Recharge/EC40.
Feedback showed that while customers understood the environmental benefits of switching to electric, concerns about range and finding chargers could affect their overall experience with the car.
‘When they chose to make a move from a gasoline car to an electric car, it always felt like a compromise,’ Akhil Krishnan, Volvo product line owner 60, told journalists at the EX60 UK media launch this week.
‘The anxiety with range was a real problem. And the other thing was the inconvenience of finding chargers and dealing with all of that, especially when you’re doing these road trips and family and so forth.’
Volvo’s answer with the EX60 is to combine a longer range with faster charging, rather than simply fitting a larger battery.
The entry-level P6 rear-wheel-drive model will offer up to 380 miles of range, while the all-wheel-drive P10 can cover up to 410 miles.
Deliveries of a a P12 version capable of more than 500 miles of claimed range is expected later this year or early 2027.
Volvo said fast charging was equally important, arguing that drivers should be able to stop for a break without having to wait for the car to recharge.
The manufacturer also wanted to avoid solving range anxiety simply by installing a very large battery, as this would add weight and cost.
Instead, the company set itself the challenge of keeping the EX60’s price ‘on par with the XC60 plug in hybrid’ while delivering the longer range and faster charging it believes customers want.
‘When you put all of those three things together, that’s when it becomes a very interesting challenge,’ Krishnan said.
Volvo also says the EX60 will help it move away from the perception that switching to an EV necessarily means accepting compromises in everyday usability.
The EX60 starts at £56,860 for the rear-wheel drive, 380-mile P6 Plus, and rises to £70,360 for the 503-mile P12 AWD in top-spec Ultra guise.