When the Volvo EX30 launched it was, according to most of the internet, the Second Coming. Small, pretty, affordable, electric and dripping with Volvo cool, it was pegged to be the thinking drivers’ alternative to a Muskmobile. Now the hubbub has died down, the next greatest thing has been, gone, been, and gone again. It’s time to see how well it stacks up now that the new car smell is gone.
The good news—much to the chagrin of American readers, whose EX30 hype got derailed by tariffs—is that yes, the EX30 still lives up to all the hype it had when it launched. A small, good-looking, electric Volvo with all the toys seems like a winning combination, and it almost is, but there are also a few rather odd flaws, and, well, an odd floor. And too many menus to sort through sometimes.
And a few other, ahem, quirks that a prospective owner should know about.
2024 Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range Ultra (UK Spec)
(Full Disclosure: Volvo UK loaned me an EX30 for a few days for testing.)
It’s a small family SUV, which doesn’t exclusively mean miniature families can drive them, but its footprint is small enough to fit in built-up European cities AND can take five people and all their stuff should you need it to. Its design language is shared with its much bigger brother, the EX90, which means there are few sharp angles, and in white it looks a little like a gently used bar of soap. Good for aerodynamics, but if you’re looking for something that expresses road-owning aggression you’re best casing your eye elsewhere.
The EX30 wasn’t supposed to be the first purpose-built electric SUV from Volvo—that was the EX90—but various development hiccups meant it the little car came first. Based on Geely’s SEA platform, shared with the Smart 1 and Zeekr X, it can come with batteries ranging from 51kWh to 69kWh, and in both RWD and AWD. There’s an EX30 to suit all audiences, and some budgets. On the latter point, in the UK it kicks off at £32,850 ($42,435 at current conversion rates) and heads up to a lofty £44,350 ($57,300.)
My tester was a Single Motor Extended Range Ultra that came in at £42,205 ($54,520). Performance ranges from 268bhp (single motor) to 422bhp (dual motor), and as it’s a Volvo top speeds are limited to 112mph.
Early cars came with various ‘TBC’ features like Apple CarPlay and doors that would unlock via an app, and they’ve now, thankfully, been added for ease of convenience.
Driving Experience
Around town, the EX30 is a wonderful box to float around in. With the Single Motor Extended Range powertrain fitted it’s no slouch off the line. Its steering is smooth and offers some feedback, though you probably won’t care about the feel of the tarmac beneath you here—more that it’ll get you to work without incident. Switching it to one pedal mode means you can be pleasingly lazy, as it does an excellent job of slowing the car to a halt as you gently coast towards the next set of lights.
Taking it on the highway is much the same. You’ll silently, effortlessly breeze to your desired speed and it’ll sit there solid as a rock. It’s quite slab-sided, and the UK’s highways can be rather open, so you’d expect it to move around a touch when the wind starts blowing, but its chunky 4,079-pound heft ensured it felt solid even during the most autumn up of gusts. Giving it a bootful to overtake someone dawdling in the middle lane it picks up with gusto, though it never feels aggressive. Plenty of cars out there have a ‘watch this’ mode to impress passengers, but this is a Volvo, which means its performance is there, sure, but gently muted to keep things sensible. That said, 0-62 mph in 5.3 seconds doesn’t sound too gentle, does it?
Now, you’d expect a sensible family Volvo for sensible Volvo families would be a little room temperature on twisty roads, but it’s surprisingly entertaining. It flows smoothly from bend to bend. Its steering, though not overflowing with feedback, does let you play with the car enough to get a sense that you’re working for your supper. The EX30’s performance will slip you from apex to apex happily. You wouldn’t be blamed for taking it out for a blast for the sake of it. As a car to get in and drive, it’s ace. You’ll also get out at the end feeling relaxed and drama-free. At least from the hot seat.
Passengers have a different experience. The floor is high. To make it SUV-ish it has to be, and to put a chunky battery in there as well, something’s got to give. The driver, unless they’re incredibly tall, won’t notice. Everyone else will. Front or the back it makes no difference, taller passengers will ride with their knees by their ears, and that’s not conducive to happiness after an hour or so in the car. They may also find the ride a little stiff though from behind the ‘wheel it felt fine.
Range
Volvo promises much from the EX30 lineup. The entry-level Single Motor car comes with a 51 kWh battery that’ll get you 209 miles on a charge, and the mid-range Single Motor Extended Range car is fitted with a 69 kWh battery and can go up to 295 miles on a tank. The top-spec Twin Motor Performance gets the same 69 kWh battery as the long-range car, but throws an extra motor and more power at the road, so will get 210 miles before needing a recharge.
During my week with the Single Motor Extended Range setup, it managed an average of a little over 3.5 miles per kWh (a touch down on the official 3.7mi/kWh figure) over a mix of roads all over the UK, and while driving (broadly) sensibly. A little bit of math gives a real-world range of 242 miles from its 69 kWh battery. A note here goes to the car’s software: it wasn’t overly optimistic on range, nor was it too far out when it came to how much range the car used on a journey.
Charging
Volvo quotes the fast charge time of the EX30 Single Motor Extended Range RWD Ultra as 28 minutes from 10-80% SOC at up to 157kW. With its 69 kWh battery (64 kWh usable), Volvo says a full charge on an 11 kW plug will take around 11.5 hours.
Taking it to a Shell Recharge station in London’s Fulham on a sleepy afternoon, the car kicked off at just over 30%, and drew a steady 115 kW, hovering around these until it hit 80% SOC when it dropped to 20 kW. This happened in about 25 minutes, I’d wager. Thing shot up quicker than I could drink my coffee. Which was both annoying, and useful.
Interior
The outside of the EX30 is rather fine, but the inside is… up for debate. Its high floor makes for uncomfortable taller passengers, and its suspension can be on the jiggly side for them too.
There’s a mix of smart design choices and obvious cost-cutting in there, and that can be a pain. the most obvious are the window switches up front; there are two that primarily work the front windows, and to use the rears you have to press a button to swap their function. The choice makes sense. Most of the time you’ll only ever need to use them for the front, but when you do need to open up the back, the extra process is an unwelcome faff. On the subject of faff: there’s no speedo above the steering wheel, so instead, you see your speed on the car’s central touchscreen. The screen is the visual focus of the cabin, and while it’s great for drivers it’s very large and very bright, and that irritated some passengers.
The trim fitted to my test car was a pleasant grey with black and white speckles. I enjoyed it immensely until a friend pointed out that it looked like the kind of worktop found in posh kitchens. They went on to say the whole interior looked a bit kitchen-y. If you’re into Scandi culinary design, you’re in for a treat.
There’s no HUD in the EX30, but it did put a handy reminder that it has a partnership with Harmon Kardon in there. There’s a big ‘ol soundbar that stretches pretty much the width of the car nestled right up against the windshield with a tiny logo on it—a logo that reflects in the screen and is often distracting.
The door handles, these very pretty large metal hoops, aren’t the easiest to use if you’re not used to them. The glove box is in the center of the dash, too. Why tool your factory to build a left and right-hand version of the center console when you can put the storage slab in the middle? The fact it can only be opened via the touch screen is an incredible annoyance.
Tech Features
Volvo’s seen fit to lob most of its toys at the EX30 from the off. In the UK, there are three trim levels to choose from: Core, Plus, and Ultra. The bottom rung, Core, still nets you a huge amount of standard gear. All of the active safety toys you’d expect to find on a Volvo are present and correct, as well as a 12.3-inch Google-powered touch screen with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, and a very handy voice command system. Plus adds things like a power tailgate and “interior illumination, high level,” while Ultra will add park pilot assist, a 3D camera, and more. The difference in spec is just shy of $13,000.
Single Motor is standard on both the Core and Plus models, and Plus-fans can spec a Single Motor Extended Range or Dual Motor set up for extra cost. Ultra cars come with Single Motor Extended Range kit as standard, with Dual Motors as a cost option.
Infotainment and UX
Getting around the EX30’s touchscreen is a game of two halves. Sometimes, it’s intuitive, easy, and slick. Other times, it’s beyond irritating and, if you’re not on the ball, puts the dozy at risk of having a crash.
Let’s kick off with the good. The Google software it’s based on is stellar. Native Google Maps means you don’t need to concern yourself with learning and being annoyed by buggy in-house tech. You can ask it to take you to a charge point either using the touch screen or using your voice and it’ll show you where it is, which kind of chargers are there, and how many are free. Once you’ve selected your preferred charge point it’ll precondition the battery for you as well. It’s excellent.
The voice controls are 99% bang on every time, so you don’t need to worry about things like changing the radio station or bothering with finding the aircon controls while you’re on the move. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay come as part of the system. Being an Apple guy I found CarPlay worked just like CarPlay should: flawlessly, and wirelessly after an initial wired connection.
Volvo’s EX30 app works well enough and is super easy to set up, though locking and unlocking the doors took a little longer than I’d be comfortable with - that said, opening them physically is always an option if you’ve got the key on you, so… it’s not the end of the world. You can also keep an eye on your SOC from afar too.
And now, friends, time for the bad bit. Making cars is expensive. Especially electric cars, because batteries make up a lot of the cost that could either go to profit or to making physical levers for things like glove boxes and rear window switches. This has led to some aggressive cost-cutting across the board at pretty much every manufacturer. Sometimes it’s slick, sometimes it isn’t. Here… it isn’t.
Changing things like the radio, settings, and even adjusting the wing mirrors require you to dig through a menu to find what you want. It can be a tap away, maybe two, maybe more. Fixing your side mirrors is the most infuriating of the lot - once you’ve dug through the menu to tell the car which you want to adjust, you then have to use the directional pads on the steering wheel to move them around. Yes, screens mean fewer wires, switches, potential points of failure, and less money spent. It also means you have to poke your way through multiple menus to get anything done.
With time, and perhaps a bit more patience than I have in reserve, it’ll probably be possible to get around most of the screen’s quirks, but there’s one that is almost unforgivable: the parking sensors. Being a Volvo, its job is to keep you and yours safe and away from an accident. Every time I drove somewhere vaguely close to something that might, if I traveled a yawning chasm at great speed without notice, hurt the car, a head-down view of the car with the offending area showing how close something is/could be popped up on the screen, covering whatever it was I was looking at. The car’s concern was sweet, but often I actively needed to see what was on the screen—and there was no obvious way to get the sodding picture of a car predicting disaster to go away.
The screen means well, but its good intentions make me want to send it to hell. Just give us damn buttons back, Volvo.
Verdict
To drive, the EX30 is good, clean fun. It’s easy to get around in, smooth, quiet, and a giggle if you want it to be, but passengers may not enjoy it quite as much as you do. And, of course, the moment you interact with its touch screen you’ll likely invent some new swear words. It does look great though, and it’s small enough to make Europeans happy enough without saying “Ooh, cars are getting big these days, aren’t they?”
Volvo, with its shared platform, and smears of Scandinavian cool has made a cracking EV. It goes far, feels great, and doesn’t make you wish it was a hybrid instead. It’s also a truly viable alternative to a Model Y.
The car du jour hype may have faded, but the EX30 deserves nearly all of the praise it got when it first launched. It feels and looks good, and once you’ve either gotten used to (or begrudgingly accepted) the central screen’s many foibles you’ll almost certainly fall for its charms.
Alex Goy is a freelance journalist based in London. He likes British sports cars, tea, and the feeling of the mild peril that only owning a British sports car can bring to your day.