It’s got looks and eco-creds but Volvo EX30 is f lawed
Volvo’s latest electric vehicle is here, coming as a small crossover. It looks fantastic, but it’s not perfect, writes Nile Bijoux.
Like just about every other carmaker in the country, Volvo wants more electric vehicles within its ranks. It started a year or so ago with the XC40 Recharge and it’s continuing with the EX30, a new model with a new nomenclature.
Obviously E means electric, while X means SUV, and 30 is where it sits in the line-up. The EX30 thus becomes Volvo’s smallest SUV, slotting in below the XC40. It’s stylish too, with the newest iteration of ‘Thor’s Hammer’ headlights up front getting a staccato, evenly broken look, an enclosed grille, pronounced wheel arches, and a rear end that looks remarkably Polestar-like, with C-shaped taillights bookending black trim spanning the boot. I wonder if this was originally a Polestar design?
Inside is a little more controversial – this is the first clear example of Tesla’s influence I’ve seen. The EX30 gets a 12.3-inch portrait display that controls everything, including media and air-conditioning, as well as replacing the driver’s dash. That means you look down and left to see speed and cruise control status, just like the Model 3 and Model Y.
It’s arguably better than the Tesla twins in that it’s portrait-oriented but I’m still not a fan. Adding a head-up display would vastly improve the experience.
The screen itself is nicer than Tesla’s unit, using a Google-developed operating system with much more colour than Tesla and an easier user interface to navigate. You also get Google Assistant for voice control, which works pretty well, though I had issues with connectivity that resulted in it being pretty much useless.
Weirdly, it wouldn’t even change the air-conditioning without being connected to the internet ... Volvo’s local arm told me the software on this particular car was due an update which would fix a lot of bugs like this, and all customer cars would ship with the update applied.
The rest of the minimalistic interior is quite a step above the Model Y. It features plenty of recycled materials and retains a vaguely 90s vibe with the paint-splatter-effect cabin plastics. I like it.
The seats are comfortable, there’s plenty of storage, including a nifty slide-out pair of cupholders beneath the centre armrest, and the Bowers & Wilkins soundbar nestled right up near the windscreen sounds great too.
I’m less of a fan of the driver monitoring system, although I know this tech is a necessity now to get a full five-star safety rating. If you subscribe to our Quick Charge weekly newsletter (you should), you might have seen my rant last week about it.
Volvo’s iteration is a bit too quick to chime if you’re looking away, even with extra tolerances built in to allow for looking at the screen to check speed. Part of the problem here is that by putting every function into a central touchscreen, you remove a lot of the muscle memory people have for things like air-conditioning or adjusting audio volume.
You do get used to it, but taking a few seconds to find the demister can trigger the driver monitoring system, which is annoying.
Worse still is if you need to set up or adjust navigation while on the move. Voice control is getting better but it still stumbles on occasion, especially with Māori place names.
To be fair, Google Maps is the best so far, even figuring out Karangahape Rd, but it’s not perfect, and saying the place name five times can be enraging. Typing the destination is easier but then you have the car bleeping at you for not watching the road ...
It’s a funny rock-and-hard-place thing, because obviously you should be watching the road at all times. That’s a given. But infotainment systems are so packed with features these days that it’s almost impossible to just glance down and be able to do what you need to.
You can turn the monitoring off, but it turns back on the next time you turn the car on. And if you’re constantly turning it off, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having it in the first place?
Another bugbear I have with the EX30 is that the standard key fob has no buttons on it at all. That means you can’t lock or unlock the car remotely, but since it’s one of those ‘just sit in it and drive’ cars, you turn it off by locking it, which is only done by touching the outside of the door handle. If you don’t, the car stays running in your driveway. It can’t be driven away, but it’ll probably drain its battery if you leave it too long.
The lack of a power button also means you can’t restart the car without getting out and locking and unlocking. A bit of a pain when the screen doesn’t turn on but the car will still go into gear ...
Anyway, moving on – this is the Extended model, which uses a 69kWh battery paired with a single, rearmounted motor. The WLTP cycle rates range at 480km but I got closer to 350km with an average electricity use of around 19kWh/100km. This particular vehicle was quite fresh, so there’s a good chance that range figure will improve with time.
Actually driving the EX30 was nice. It’s smooth and brisk off the line, as you’d expect being electric, with a softly sprung, well-sorted ride and easy steering. A great city car in this regard. If you want more poke, the Ultra variant gets twin electric motors with 315kW/543Nm of output.
Overall, the EX30 is a tricky one. It’s extremely attractive in its design; and while I don’t like it much, I can’t deny the vertical infotainment screen works better as an all-in-one solution than Tesla’s horizontal unit.
It also has massive eco creds, with a carbon footprint of 30 tonnes over 200,000km of driving thanks to heaps of recycled materials in the construction.
But it’s not perfect by any means. The irritating driver monitoring system, the lack of buttons on the fob (remedied by opting for the digital driver’s key, but that’s more money), and the fairly mediocre range all hurt the EX30. Plus, it’s a bit expensive at $74,990 starting when the base Model Y kicks off at $67,900.