BMW iX vs Volvo ES90

The BMW iX costs £10,845 more than the Volvo ES90. For that premium it adds 76 litres more boot space, 155 kW more power and a 2.0s quicker 0-62mph time. The Volvo ES90 is not just cheaper - it also offers 155 kW faster peak rapid charging. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the BMW iX comes out ahead overall.

The Volvo ES90 is £10,845 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £152 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Volvo ES90 comes out roughly £10,725 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 355 miles for the BMW iX and 286 miles for the Volvo ES90 - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The BMW iX goes roughly 69 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 35 minutes in the BMW iX and 22 in the Volvo ES90, so the Volvo ES90 loses less time at each stop. So the BMW iX stops less often while the Volvo ES90 stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The two are within 28 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 458 mm of total clearance for the Volvo ES90 and about 430 mm of total clearance for the BMW iX. The Volvo ES90 also turns in a 0.8 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 iX and 84% for the Volvo ES90. 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.