Volvo EX30 (2023 - ) Electric review

Against the cars you may also be considering the Volvo looks properly premium, making the starting price and monthly finance figures all the more remarkable. Where there are some cheaper materials and cost-cutting inside Volvo cleverly makes a virtue out of it through neat design, the overall look and feel still in a league above the Vauxhall Mokka-e, Jeep Avenger, e-2008 or other compact electric crossovers you may be comparing it against. Some trick, another benefit being all but the Twin Motor Performance version and top spec Ultra vehicles duck the £40,000 threshold for the VED/’road tax’ supplement charged on supposedly premium cars. In terms of running costs it's the usual story for electric cars, the owners Volvo thinks will be buying the EX30 more likely than most to have off-street parking and facility to install a home charge point if they haven’t already. And therefore able to charge on cheap off-peak domestic electricity rates. Even if you can’t do that the decent range means integrating a single public charging session into your regular routine should do you for a week’s worth of school run duties, or an average commute.

Economies of scale through sharing a battery, motors and other bits with the related Smart #1 and Zeekr X help explain the EX30’s keen price and come from the Chinese-based Geely group, of which Volvo is now a part. No concerns there given Geely’s resources and engineering clout, especially in electric vehicles. Many of the car’s systems can be updated over the air without needing to go into a physical workshop as well, but if something does go wrong there’s a relatively standard three-year warranty for the car and eight years on the battery. Worth considering MG offers seven-year cover for the whole vehicle at this level, though.

Safety is as much Volvo’s brand DNA as cool Scandinavian design and, as you’d hope, the EX30 comes with lots of driver assistance technology. A combination of radars and sensors constantly scan your surroundings, alerting to any potential hazards, though we found the lane-keeping system felt somewhat unpredictable in its nudges to the wheel. The steering interventions and semi-automated lane changing capability of the optional Pilot Assist were similarly erratic. If not quite as bad as its Zeekr and Smart relatives the face-scanning driver awareness system was also a little over-sensitive at times. This was frustrating given the interior design forces you to take your eyes off the road and interact with the central screen to adjust everything from heating to the various driver settings. A confused control hierarchy making adjusting the interior ambient lighting effects easier than turning on the foglights is also a concern.

Fresh from driving the related Smart #1 and Zeekr X it’s interesting to see how Volvo has made its own mark on the shared foundations. While the Smart in particular puts rear legroom before boot space Volvo has gone the other way, and while there’s room for an adult to sit behind an averaged sized driver you’ll find your legs against the back of the seat. The trade-off is a boot big enough to carry a pushchair and the weekly shop, while a compartment under what would normally be the bonnet has space to stash your charging cables. For driver and front seat passenger, meanwhile, Volvo seats have always been among the most comfortable, and while they’re mounted close to the floor to make room for the batteries the driving position is good. Having to delve into the touch-screen menus to adjust the mirrors (via the steering wheel buttons) is a faff we could live without, though. In better news the cabin looks like something from a glossy interior design magazine, the sense of space up front accentuated by the muted colours and pleasing textures of the recycled denim, sustainably sourced wool or ‘3D-knitted’ recycled fabrics on the seats and trim elements. Even the seatbelt buckles feel tactile and are nicely weighted to add an extra touch of class. If not a big car on the outside it feels more spacious inside, the door armrests seemingly free-hanging in space and artfully backlit while the big floor level storage bin between the front seats will swallow bags, snacks and phones with ease. A neat pull-out cupholder on the central armrest meanwhile carries your morning coffee while a discreet central glovebox hides your valuables. While there was a bit of tyre noise on the bigger wheels of the Twin Motor Performance model progress is otherwise as peaceful as you’d hope in an electric car, making easy work of country roads filled with puddles and potholes. On smaller wheels and with less weight to carry the Single Motor actually felt nicer to drive on twisty roads, the light steering smoother and more natural in its responses. This is a recurring theme in a lot of electric cars we’ve driven lately where the lighter and less powerful models are often nicer to drive than their attention-seeking twin-motor performance variants, suggesting less is often more when it comes to balancing power against comfort.

While the policy of putting everything through the central screen results in a clean and uncluttered driving environment it’s not without compromises. Without even basic instrumentation in your line of sight just checking your speed means taking your eyes off the road, fiddly fonts and tiny screen icons exacerbating the issue. Added to this the angle of the wireless phone charging pad means your phone slides around triggering a large notification in the middle of the screen every time it moves. Credit due, the Google-powered interface will be familiar to Android users and is divided into clearly defined zones, and if you don’t mind interacting via voice commands it will recognise you from your home smart speaker as well. If you’re into that kind of thing. Bad luck if you’re not, or you’re an Apple user less familiar with a Google-driven world. However, Apple CarPlay is provided. There are some nice little physical design touches as well, like the pull-out rubbish bin for the kids to dump their sweet wrappers (complete with moulded in moose and pine trees on its sides) and the Swedish flag tags on the front seats. Details, perhaps, but the kind of feelgood factors Volvo does so well. Trim levels are easy to understand, too, the Plus model including your choice of fancy textiles and themed interior vibes, a Harman Kardon soundbar and more while the top-line Ultra adds nice-to-haves like a panoramic roof and power-adjustable front seats. We found the soundbar rather boomy and the volume seemed to mysteriously reduce when braking strongly. A more affordable Core version will join the range in due course.

Single Motor versions of the EX30 are available with a standard or long-range battery option, according to your needs. The latter can do a useful 287 miles by official figures, which is on a par with rivals like the Renault Megane E-Tech 100% Electric and Kia e-Niro, while beating class benchmarks like the Vauxhall Mokka-e. We drove 190 motorway miles one wet winter’s evening and this left us with around 30 miles of range to spare. The efficiency we got suggests 250 miles should be easily achievable in more favourable driving conditions. On the road the novelty of the Twin Motor Performance model’s 400 horsepower-plus output and supercar-trouncing 0-62mph time are all very impressive but you can only use that level of violent acceleration so many times before someone in the back redecorates your lovely sustainable woollen upholstery with the contents of their stomach. Thanks all the same but we’ll stick with a Single Motor version. Meanwhile, we appreciated the option to toggle one-pedal driving on and off via the programmable shortcut button on the steering wheel, so-called regenerative braking one of the great joys of electric cars given you put power back into the battery every time you come off the throttle. It really takes the stress out of busy traffic and brought us to a smooth standstill nine times out of ten. But not always, meaning an occasional panicked stamp on the brake pedal to avoid rear-ending the car in front. One way of checking you’re paying attention to what’s going on, though in this instance we would actually prefer a bong or flashing red warning light!