Of all the recently launched cars that have begun to make an appearance on our High Streets this year, it is perhaps Volvo’s new EX30 that has captured my attention the most. Not only is the EX30 all-electric – a particularly lovely all-white example seemed to glide effortlessly, and near silently past me one warm summer’s evening during a long weekend spent in West Sussex – it’s also Volvo’s most compact SUV to date. In certain guises the EX30 is also Volvo’s fastest production car – ever, and… it’s significantly cheaper than a quite a few of its shall we say “lesser-badged” rivals.
Based upon the same Geely-supplied scalable electric platform as you’ll find propping-up both Smart’s #1 and Lotus’s Eletre, the EX30 is available with a range of battery and motor combinations.
You can choose between two different battery sizes, two electric motor power outputs, and whether you have rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. The latter, in reality being all-the-more all-wheel drive than it is full-blown mud, ruts, and snow 4WD.
The least expensive EX30 has a single-motor driving the rear wheels with 268bhp, it comes with a 51kWh (49kWh useable) battery pack. If you’re seeking a longer range, the imaginatively titled EX30 Single Motor Extended Range, which, would you believe provides the most driving range in an EX30? comes next. It utilises the same electric motor as the cheaper model, but adds a fairly sizeable 69kWh (64kWh usable) battery for a promised just-under-300 miles between electric refills.
And then there’s the Performance version, all 69kWh and 422bhp of it. Volvo say it will crack 0-62mph in under 4 seconds.
As always, you pays your money… But seriously, how fast do you actually need a 4/5 seater all-electric crossover-cum-SUV to go?
If my experience of electric vehicles is anything to go by, I’d happily trade a little performance for a longer range.
Another thing to consider is the fact the EX30’s chassis simply doesn’t deliver the whole performance car type experience; think comfy, quiet, and undemanding rather than anything approaching involving or exciting. Yes, the suspension might be firm, in some respects perhaps for all the wrong reasons (heavy batteries require stiffer springs to cope with them); the ride can get quite choppy. And yes, the EX30 might sit on 20 inch rims and low profile tyres, but the steering, – I nearly forgot mention the near square-shaped steering wheel – and general day-to-day ride and handling are all far too relaxed for any spirited or enthusiastic driving.
Which in a roundabout way, might actually be a blessing in disguise.
In trying to make the EX30’s interior as uncluttered and as Scandi-chic as possible, it’s as if Volvo challenged their designers to remove as many buttons as they possibly could. Everything, as per usual with Volvo, is beautifully screwed together, and the use of recycled materials wherever possible is applaudable, to say the least; much of the upholstery is made of recycled polyester or denim and the EX30, Volvo claim, has the has the lowest ‘life-cycle carbon emissions’ (the combined total of what is associated with its manufacture and its use) of any car the company has ever made. But in their quest to simplify everything, to pair things down to the absolute minimum component-wise, one could argue Volvo have created the most counter intuitive car interior yet to see the light of day.
Even the “ignition” key is button-less, the EX30 unlocks itself as you approach it. Well, most of the time it does. I got stuck outside on a particularly rainy day!
Once inside, vast armrest-cum cup-holder-drawer-type-thing, and under windscreen sound-bar aside – there are no door speakers to help reduce wiring – you quickly begin to notice quite what’s missing. There’s no starter button, no instrument binnacle, no handbrake, no head-up display, no obvious buttons to adjust the mirrors. Even the electric window switches have been paired down to just two, you have to press something else to lower the rear windows. I never sussed-out how.
The steering column does have physical stalks for transmission i.e. forwards and backwards (on the right) and main beam/turn indicators/windscreen washers (on the left), and there are also a few physical switches on the steering wheel spokes. And, that’s your lot.
Everything is controlled via the centrally mounted 12.3 inch touchscreen: radio; volume and station, climate comtrol, lane assist, navigation, drive mode… Even the speedo is on the touch screen! If you want to adjust the door mirrors you first have to select a function via the touch screen and then use the buttons on the steering wheel. Why?
For nearly ever function you want to perform or adjust – even the seats seem unnecessarily complicated to set just so – you have to take your eyes off the road in order to look at that bloody screen.
And to top it all, Volvo have fitted a camera directly in front of the driver that monitors precisely where they are looking – it sets off a series of bongs, beeps and warnings, should it decide the driver isn’t concentrating hard enough on the road ahead. You couldn’t make it up! And to think Volvo were once world leaders in passenger safety; Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin patented the three-point seat belt in 1959 and then gave it away to the world for free.
Despite my moaning, I actually quite liked the EX30. It is actually quite a good car. Nevertheless, beneath all of the – in my opinion – unnecessary elec-trickery and over complication, I can’t help but wonder if Volvo actually made a much better car that’s struggling desperately to get out.
Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range RWD Ultra
Powertrain: 69/64kWh (nominal/usable) battery. Single Electric Motor
Transmission: Single speed Auto. Rear wheel drive.
Power: 272 bhp
Torque: 343 Nm
0-62 mph: 5.3 Sec
Max Speed: 112 mph
Range: up to 295 miles
Electric Consumption: Up to 3.7 miles / kWh
Charging time: 10-80% 153kW: From 28 minutes
Charging time: 0-100% 11kW: From 11.5 hours
Weight: 1,833 kg
Price: from £42,025 (as driven £42,025)
Many thanks to Joe at Volvo’s UK press office for the loan of the EX30
@bird_liam
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