Review: Volvo EX30

Remember when Volvo was just a “safe” brand? Boxy, sturdy, reliable, and utterly sensible? For many, this image may still be the predominant view of the carmaker. But in truth that was many years ago. For some time now, though, Volvo has been keen to be seen as a premium marque. Indeed, this was clear a decade ago when it poached Bentley’s interior design head.

Ever since then, Volvo’s pricing has steadily been going north, too. So much so that, almost inevitably, the company’s customers have gotten older.

High-end prices inevitably mean fewer and fewer younger drivers can afford to buy in. The result? Volvo’s average UK customer age is 54. Fifty-four. Remember when you thought 54 was ancient? I do. In fact, terrifyingly, 54 isn’t far off from qualifying for a free “older person’s” bus pass in England.

This fact is the prime reason why the EX30 exists. Volvo urgently needs a gateway drug, something affordable to get younger drivers hooked on what it considers to be its USP—an alluring blend of Swedish design, Google-powered tech, and, thanks to its parent Geely, Chinese electric vehicle know-how—and to bring that average age down. Then, in time, when these short-sighted pups grow up and stop spending all their hard-earned on holidays and Shein hauls, have them trade up to the “proper” models like the EX90.

That’s the plan, anyway, it seems. Last year, CEO Jim Rowan, hinting at the coming mini electric SUV, described the EX30 as an urban EV aimed “at a younger demographic who can subscribe to it and make it their first Volvo.” Note the “first Volvo,” and, yes, “subscribe.”

Volvo’s EV-only sister brand Lynk & Co, one of Geely’s many auto alternatives (Polestar, Zeekr, and Smart are others), has been favoring the subscription model over outright ownership for years. Subscription makes a car easier for youngsters to afford, of course. But, just to be sure, the EX30’s overall price is—for a Volvo—lower, too: It starts from £33,795 in the UK and $34,950 in the US.

So it’s fair to say the EX30 is an important launch for Volvo. Much is riding on whether this model is a hit, especially as the other, cheaper Chinese EV brands, including Volvo’s own stablemates, are coming to eat their lunch.

Speaking of which, to keep costs down while still making the EX30 look like a modern-day fancy Volvo, this EV sits on the smallest version of Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture, which of course means it inevitably shares similar specs to the group’s Smart #1 and Zeekr X, even if it is trying to pass as Scandinavian. So, just as with EX90, Volvo is essentially competing with itself, as well as the likes of Tesla and VW.

This city EV gets three powertrain options and two different battery types. For those doing mostly short trips, there’s a single-motor with a cheaper LFP battery that’s supposedly good for 214 miles on a charge.

Then there’s a single-motor extended range version sporting a higher density and faster charging NMC battery that Volvo says hits up to 298 miles (which, incidentally, isn’t far off the XC40 Recharge’s max range, and keep in mind a larger VW ID.3 will go farther per kilowatt-hour).

The top model is an NMC battery, twin motor, all-wheel-drive affair putting out 315 kW (428 hp) and zero to 62 mph in a frankly preposterous 3.6 seconds on such a car. This makes it Volvo's “fastest accelerating car ever,” which feels very much like corporate posturing and is entirely unnecessary for such a segment of the market.

Still, if you’re looking for bhp-based value, the Twin Motor EX30 bothers the 201-bhp VW ID.3 and basically matches an entry-spec Tesla Model 3. The speed versions are unlikely to be popular, though—expect the Extended Range model to be the favored EX30 iteration.

Charging? The extended-range twin motor has a capacity of up to 153 kW, while the entry-level car has 134 kW. This means going from 10 to 80 percent in a little over 25 minutes, which is reasonable. A home charge from a wall box will take up to 12 hours or so.

The EX30 is Volvo’s smallest SUV yet, at 4,233 mm (13.89 feet) long, shorter than the 4,440 mm (14.57 feet) of the XC40. It's also 30 mm slimmer, and just under 100 mm lower in height.

Although the silhouette is a slight departure for Volvo, the EX30 is still reminiscent enough of a shrunken XC40 to signal it hails from the same brand. However, pull up an image of the Zeekr X, though, and you’ll see a remarkably familiar outline.

Indeed, the interiors of both cars are equally alike, where, at a glance, the main difference seems to be the Volvo has placed its 12.3-inch central touchscreen control vertically, while the Zeekr’s is horizontal.

You could call the EX30’s Scandinavian minimalist cabin stark, if you were being unkind, but it does feel well put together and full of worthy recycled and renewable materials, including woven flax, upcycled denim fibers from blue jeans, ground plastic waste, recycled polyester, and carpet from recycled PET bottles.

This may seem odd, but the door handles are a particular triumph. Solid metal loops that cleverly fool you into thinking that high-end feel is here in the “budget” Volvo, as long as you don’t spec the flecked interior plastic that has more than a whiff of hospital waiting room about it.

Much like a Tesla cabin, that touchscreen is your path to nearly all the controls, including replacing the instrument cluster behind the steering wheel. Volvo’s Google-powered UI is one of the best out there, as we’ve stated before, but this still doesn’t make up for such a lack of physical buttons. Yes, cost-cutting is the order of the day here for the brand’s entry-level EV, but the prevailing wind in car design is definitely moving away from “no buttons” toward a varying mixture of touch and physical knobs—and for good reason. It’s a shame Volvo has ignored this.

Two examples: To move your wing mirrors, instead of adjusting manually, you now have to click through two screen options to get to mirror settings, then you must switch to the steering wheel buttons to physically shift the mirrors. The window controls must be touch-swiped to switch between front and rear, and you’ll inevitably forget and get this wrong much of the time. This is not progress.

The Harman Kardon soundbar covering the full width of the dash (an idea also seen in the coming Ford Explorer EV) cleverly removes the need for normal door speakers, and it’s quite loud, too. Which is good because the EX30 suffers from noticeable wind noise above 70 mph. It doesn't distort at max volume, and the QuantumLogic surround setting works fine if you put it on “high.” In short, this soundbar switch-up doesn’t feel like a typical car audio system, it’s more rounded. I think I’m a convert.

However, despite being three years in development and having the advantage of that Google UI, it’s a real shame Volvo has not capitalized on improving voice control. The system still has a number of annoying fails: It doesn’t know who in the car is talking to it, and it can’t handle two commands in one sentence. Tell it to turn down the heated seats for the passenger and it drops the driver’s side instead.

Lastly, and perhaps most embarrassingly, the Google Assistant in the EX30 doesn’t even know it’s controlling an EV—ask it what range is left on the battery and it answers as if the car has an internal combustion engine. Awkward.

What’s it like to drive, though? Well, it’s quite good, actually—fun and predictable, with enough performance to make you feel like you won’t get into trouble overtaking. You can throw it into turns without much cause for concern, though it’s not as flat as some might like—there is certainly some roll there, though not as much as its Smart #1 sibling. And the damping, which Volvo tells WIRED on this brand-hosted media drive it worked hard on, is indeed better than the Zeekr X.

However, when you push the performance version of the EX30, it is not a pleasant experience. It needs more grab on the brakes at speed, and you don’t get an overly strong feeling of connection to the road. Even with all the safety features built into this EV—and there are many—this does not feel like a car you want to drive with real aggression or test out that 3.6-second 0 to 60 acceleration.

The regen braking on my preproduction car was terrible, too—lurching unceremoniously to a halt in the city traffic and generally not responding as you’d like for true one-pedal driving. Volvo promises this will be fixed by the time customers get cars, though.

As for efficiency, from a few hours of mixed driving styles on freeways and country roads I managed 3.5 m/kWh—which, it should be noted, is below the 4.4 m/kWh we managed in one of the EX30’s main competitors, the Jeep Avenger, another electric urban SUV we very much like.

As a small electric SUV, there’s no doubt the EX30 is going up against stiff competition, including the cheaper Peugeot e-2008 and MG ZS, and the more expensive Škoda Enyaq iV. Then there's the similarly priced and generally well-received all-electric Jeep Avenger, and, coming soon to Europe only, the Ford Explorer, rumored to start around the £40,000 mark.

You can see where Volvo has made the savings with this EV, but it must be said the penny-pinching has been done intelligently and sympathetically. This still feels like a Volvo. It looks premium, too. And at this price point it should succeed at drawing in a much-needed younger audience to the brand with its aging customer base.

However, the smaller scale means this car is not ideal for families, nor is it a really a driver’s car thanks to those handling niggles, and I don’t think the performance version should be as quick as it is. There’s also an argument to say that this car, despite being a city EV, should really have a larger range. Then there’s the annoying lack of buttons and Google UI quirks.

Still, taking all this into account, there’s much to like about the EX30. It fulfills its brief of being a gateway to the brand and finally going toe-to-toe on price with competitors. But it’s by no means an unqualified success. If you’re not specifically looking to enter the Volvo family, then you may find more bang for your buck—or, perhaps more appropriately, yield for your yuan—elsewhere.