An AI assistant, a concert hall setting and a roof that changes tint: The Modems’ co-founders Natalie Salmon and Emmy Brunner explore Volvo’s approach to making everyday driving feel a little more extraordinary.
There are certain things we would quite like our next car to understand. That the playlist is an essential part of the journey. That being comfortable matters. That nobody wants to wrestle with a complicated screen while trying to find the right turning. And that beautiful design and seriously clever technology belong together.
So, when Emmy and I tried the fully electric Volvo EX60 at the She’s Electric x Volvo event at Daylesford with The Modems co-hosting, there was plenty for us to get interested in.
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The setting felt particularly appropriate. At Heritage House, the conversations explored technology, wellbeing and how to make more thoughtful choices in everyday life. I was hosting a discussion about the future of everyday technology, while Emmy’s session focused on wellbeing and living well. A car brings those subjects together surprisingly neatly: it’s somewhere we make decisions, listen to music, decompress and spend time with people we love.
The Volvo EX60 makes an interesting proposition for that space. There’s Scandinavian design, an AI assistant and some impressive tech credentials. But there are also smaller details that make you think: yes, somebody has actually considered how real women might use this.
First, a little Volvo backstory
Volvo’s Swedish roots go back to 1927, when its first production car rolled out of the factory in Gothenburg. Almost a century later, that heritage still informs the brand’s identity: practical design, an interest in everyday life and a longstanding focus on safety.
One particularly good piece of dinner-party trivia: Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin developed the modern three-point safety belt, which the company introduced in 1959. Volvo then made the patent available for other car manufacturers to use, on the grounds that a safety innovation this important shouldn’t belong to just one brand.
Volvo has used female and virtual pregnant crash test dummies in safety testing since 1995 to help protect occupants of all genders and body types. In the early 2000s Volvo Developed “Linda,” an advanced virtual model of a pregnant woman to study seatbelt interaction and foetal safety.
There is something appealing about that history, when you’re looking at a vehicle full of new tech. The Volvo EX60’s innovations sit within a much longer story of thinking about all the people inside the car. Events like She’s Electric create room to ask practical questions about charging, women’s safety and ownership, and to explore the technology for ourselves.
The sound system deserves its own moment
Let’s start with the feature most likely to make you reconsider how much attention you pay to a car’s audio specifications.
The Volvo EX60 offers a premium Bowers & Wilkins system with 28 speakers, 1,820 watts and Dolby Atmos support. It’s an optional equipment choice, so you’ll need to check the specification of the car you’re considering. The system also includes speakers in the headrests of all four main seats, bringing sound closer to each listener.
Then there’s the Gothenburg Concert Hall setting. This is the orchestral connection: an audio mode designed to give your music the acoustics of a concert hall. You can also choose Living Room or Downtown Club, changing the sense of space around what you’re listening to. Think of it as choosing the venue for your playlist.
A dramatic film score on a country drive? We can see the appeal. Your favourite album with a little jazz-club atmosphere? Also compelling. It’s the kind of feature that makes sense to anyone who has ever spent longer choosing the music than choosing the route.
There’s practical flexibility behind the fun, too. Depending on the audio equipment, sound can be focused towards the front or rear, and individual-seat settings let you adjust listening levels. That offers a more personalised experience when everyone in the car has a different idea of the correct volume. The concert-hall and other room modes are separate from Dolby Atmos playback, which uses its own immersive presentation.
It’s this ability to tailor the sound that interests us: technology that gives you more control over how a familiar part of your day feels.
Your AI assistant is coming along for the ride
For The Modems, Google Gemini is another obvious talking point. Volvo describes its integrated assistant as something you can speak to naturally, using everyday language to find places, ask questions and connect with compatible Google services. Software updates can add functionality over time.
The potential is easy to understand. Finding somewhere to eat, working out where you’re going next or asking a question aloud can be useful when your hands and attention are occupied with driving.
Of course, living with an assistant is the real test of how helpful it becomes. But this is a direction of travel we’re interested in: making useful digital tools easier to access in the situations where reaching for your phone is the last thing you should be doing.
A cabin with excellent interiors taste
The Volvo EX60’s interior has that familiar Scandinavian appreciation for texture, restrained colour and clean lines. Upholstery choices include a wool blend, and shades such as Cardamom and Dawn sound pleasingly at home on an interiors moodboard.
The available electrochromic panoramic roof is a particularly satisfying piece of tech we loved using. Through the car’s controls, the glass can switch between transparent and tinted. An infrared coating also helps reduce heat entering the cabin on sunny days. It’s essentially an adjustable shade built into the glass itself.
There are thoughtful comfort features, too. Personal profiles can remember your preferred seat, steering-wheel and mirror positions. If you share a car with somebody considerably taller than you, the appeal needs very little explanation. Heated seats and available ventilation add another layer of comfort.
These are the details that make an expensive purchase feel considered every time you use it.
Safety that responds to the person wearing the belt
A feature doesn’t need a touchscreen animation to deserve our attention. Some of the most interesting technology in a car is almost invisible. Volvo’s safety-belt story continues with the Volvo EX60’s multi-adaptive front safety belts.
Using information from sensors inside and outside the car, the system can adapt its response to factors including the occupant’s size, seating position and the characteristics of a collision. Volvo describes it as a way of making protection more individual.
The range and charging questions, answered
Volvo’s UK figures give the Volvo EX60 P12 AWD an estimated range of up to 503 miles under WLTP test conditions. That’s a manufacturer figure, rather than a distance we verified at Daylesford; weather, speed and driving conditions will affect actual range.
Charging speed varies by version. Volvo quotes an optimal 10% – 80% charge in 16 minutes for the P6 and P10 using suitable powerful DC chargers, while the P12’s quoted time is 19 minutes. Charger capability and battery conditions matter, so these are best-case figures rather than a promise for every stop.
Even with those qualifications, the appeal is clear. Less time planning around a charging stop makes the switch to electric easier to imagine.
Space for the life you actually have
The Volvo EX60 is a five-seat SUV, and the practical details deserve attention alongside the headline technology.
Volvo lists 634 litres of boot space with the rear backrests up, expanding to 1,647 litres with them folded. There’s also a 58-litre storage compartment under the bonnet. Think weekend bags, gym kit, a food shop and the extra tote that somehow accompanies every outing.
The sustainability thinking extends beyond electric power. In its event briefing, Volvo says the Volvo EX60 contains 27% recycled content and has a lifecycle carbon footprint on a par with its smaller EX30. These are the company’s own claims, but the broader question matters: what goes into making a car is part of its environmental story, too.
Our takeaway from Daylesford
The Volvo EX60 gives us plenty to be interested in: sound you can personalise, an assistant you can speak to, a roof you can tint and seat belts designed to respond to the individual. What made those features appealing to us was how readily they connect to everyday life. We can imagine the playlist, the weekend packing, the cold morning and the relief of getting into a car that remembers how we like things set up.
A longer test would tell us more about daily driving, charging and how the software performs over time. But as an introduction, our test drive at Daylesford gave us a compelling look at Volvo’s thinking.
And yes, choosing which song deserves the Gothenburg Concert Hall treatment is now firmly on our agenda.
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