BMW i5 Touring vs Volvo EX90

The Volvo EX90 costs £10,115 more than the BMW i5 Touring. For that premium it adds 145 kW faster peak rapid charging and 2 more seats (7 versus 5). The BMW i5 Touring is not just cheaper - it also offers 246 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the BMW i5 Touring comes out ahead overall.

The BMW i5 Touring is £10,115 cheaper to buy. The BMW i5 Touring is cheaper to charge, roughly £152 a year versus £200 for the Volvo EX90, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the BMW i5 Touring comes out roughly £10,355 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 308 miles for the BMW i5 Touring and 246 miles for the Volvo EX90 - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The BMW i5 Touring goes roughly 62 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 30 minutes in the BMW i5 Touring and 22 in the Volvo EX90, so the Volvo EX90 loses less time at each stop. So the BMW i5 Touring stops less often while the Volvo EX90 stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The BMW i5 Touring is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 64 mm narrower than the Volvo EX90. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 500 mm of total clearance for the BMW i5 Touring and about 436 mm of total clearance for the Volvo EX90. The Volvo EX90 also turns in a 0.3 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the BMW i5 Touring and 84% for the Volvo EX90. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.