Volvo EX30 Review: Swing And A Miss

The EX30 was supposed to be Volvo’s moment. A $35,000, 300-mile EV that helped prove to the world that legacy automakers knew what they were doing. 

Volvo was one of the first to implement PHEV powertrains in its cars on a large scale, and given how its Chinese-backed ownership has been at the forefront of EVs overseas, it seemed like a no-brainer to enter the space. After all, the XC40 Recharge, Volvo’s first mainstream EV, was a solid start. 

With that momentum, surely Volvo would be able to deliver a market destroyer, right? Well, no. 

The EX30 has been on sale in the United States for less than two years, and it’s already being discontinued. But before it leaves our shores, I spent a week with the EX30 Cross Country variant to see what went wrong.

A Handsome Exterior

Visually, the EX30 scores the bulk of its points. This is a handsome car, and it is deceptively styled to look larger than it is. With the Cross Country package attached, you get some of Volvo’s trademark weirdness in the form of a “grille” that is actually a topographical map of a Swedish mountain, along with black accents and next-generation blocky headlights. 

The Sand Dune exterior color is also nice, in a very German taxi kind of way. I kid; Volvo has always done well with soft neutral tones, and the fact that it’s an exclusive color for the Cross Country trim is nice to see, especially contrasted with all the plastic cladding. 

There are even some hidden moose (mooses?) scattered around the exterior and interior as well. It all feels very Scandinavian in a way that even other Volvo models don’t.

Photos by: Zander Sutton | Motor1

Photos by: Zander Sutton | Motor1

At first glance, the interior racks up some points, too. The green wool-blend seats look and feel very nice, and the space-age door handles feel just the right amount of overstyled. 

Plus, the Harman Kardon soundbar under the windshield is something more cars should have. It is good to see that Volvo’s sound systems end up in all its cars.

This is the extent of positive accolades regarding the interior.

A Confusing Interior

Photo by: Zander Sutton | Motor1

I have no idea what was going on when Sweden and China sat down to figure out what went where in the interior of this car. Let me start with this: When I got into the car, I needed to plug my phone in. Great, the EX30 has two front USB-C outlets. 

But where are they? Any guesses? Nope, not where you can reach them, but instead located on the floor of the vehicle, underneath two flaps that make it virtually impossible to adjust, even more so while driving. 

That’s not all. Say you’d like the air vents—which, yes, HVAC adjustments are in-screen only—to blow air toward your midsection. In any normal car, you’d take the nozzle and point it down. 

Photos by: Zander Sutton | Motor1

Photos by: Zander Sutton | Motor1

Well, you can do that in the EX30. Instead of getting air down there, the vents close completely. Why? Not sure. And speaking of vents: hope your backseat passengers like being really hot or really cold, because all your vents are up front. 

Let’s get back to that 12.3-inch screen for a second, though. It is the only way to open the glovebox. Oh, and it is in the middle of the car, I assume, to cut costs by not having to engineer two separate dashboards for left- and right-hand markets. This feels like it should be illegal. I recognize Volvo wants minimal buttons, but we’re forcing things we don’t need to force. 

That same screen is also where you’ll find Volvo’s Google-based navigation system. When I asked it to drive me between Baltimore and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, it picked up a total of four charging stations between the two destinations. Now, if you think that sounds low, that is because it is, and also incorrect. 

I have no idea what was going on when Sweden and China sat down to figure out what went where in the interior of this car.

I whipped out my phone to find that there are actually dozens upon dozens of charging stations, and Google’s system does not show them unless you physically search for them. It actively depletes you of what limited charging infrastructure the EX30 is allowed to visit.

Now, the way to avoid this would be to use Apple CarPlay, which the EX30 has. But, uh-oh, CarPlay only works sometimes. You can connect to it, but good luck opening it or trying to stream music through it. How General Motors of Volvo.

I could go on for hours about every cabin decision that baffles me. I still have not talked about the lack of a center console (it is now cupholder storage), only two window controls that you have to switch between front and rear to use, the wireless charger charging my phone about 30 percent over three hours, the haptic touch buttons on the steering wheel sticking, or the fact that if you try and look at your speed on the center screen, the car beeps at you to put you eyes back on the road. I guess that covers most of that.

Wait: forgot one. To open the trunk on the screen, you can’t just tap it; you have to long-press it. 

Photo by: Zander Sutton | Motor1

As far as the rear of the cabin goes, it’s fine. If you have ever been in the back of a small European crossover, it feels like that. Legroom isn’t great, but the lower floor means headroom isn’t as bad as the roofline would suggest. 

There are no second-row fold-down cup holders, though, which is a bummer considering how much time and effort Volvo put into putting cup holders into the front of the car, where your center console should be.

Trunk space is fine, with just 11.2 cubic feet with the rear seats up, and 27.8 cubic feet with the rear seats down. As I said, it is a small European crossover, so don’t get your hopes up following in the footsteps of a 240 wagon, despite the graphic on the rear hatch telling you what can and can’t fit in.

You can get two large suitcases in the rear with the back seats up, or five 20-pound bags of ice, if you so desire. Don’t expect this to fit a family of four’s stuff, however.

Great power; Iffy Range

Photo by: Zander Sutton | Motor1

The Volvo EX30 Cross Country is powered by a 69.0 kilowatt-hour battery, making 422 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. It sends that power to all four wheels, giving the EX30 Cross Country the distinction of being the quickest Volvo ever built, with a 0-60 mph time of just 3.4 seconds. 

This is unnecessary. If you drive it in anything other than battery-saver mode, this car wheelspins at the drop of a hat. The power delivery is optimized like a Jeep Wagoneer S, or if you have not driven one of those, a school-issue Chromebook. 

And that’s a shame, because as far as driving it goes, the EX30 feels great. For a 4,151-pound car, the EX30 feels light on its feet and doesn’t have an immense amount of weight or body roll around corners. 

It took various Baltimore-area roads with ease, something not all cars can claim. I would even go so far as to say that its drive is the experiential highlight of this car. 

If you drive it in anything other than battery-saver mode, this car wheelspins at the drop of a hat.

A whopping 227 miles of range is what Volvo says this car can do. That, my friends, is not true (at least, not in the real world). While I did not do a CarWow-style range test, I did drive it 140 miles in one direction and found that the car ate more like 170 miles, and that was only because I drove in battery-saver mode. If you leave this thing on regular, it kills its battery fast.

Charging is also difficult. No Tesla NACS chargers here (and while there is an adaptor, I chose to charge it the way the car was designed); instead, this uses CCS ports found in places like Electrify America. When it works, it’s great. Spending 20 minutes scrolling through Instagram while the car charges itself is not that big of a waste of time. But these networks are unreliable, and you’ll often find yourself trying various slow chargers to park at for hours at a time. No bueno.

Speaking of slow chargers, I actually had a lot of issues connecting the car to non-fast charging plugs. After a couple of minutes, the car’s screen would read “loose plug, charging stopped,” and that would be the end of that. Maybe this was just my car that had the issue, but it made juicing up far more tedious than necessary. 

Perhaps the biggest issue for the EX30 Cross Country, which extends to all of the EX30s, by-the-dubs, is the price. $49,545. This is not the $35,000, 300-mile EV Volvo promised us. Volvo should know better than this. This is $50,000 for a car that can’t even hit the lowest-spec Toyota BZ’s range. I have no better word to use for that other than “sad.” 

Verdict: What Happened Here?

Photo by: Zander Sutton | Motor1

The Volvo EX30 is not finished. It is still in beta. A car like this cannot be sold to people. We are still miles away from VinFast territory, but man, I get why this car is being dropped from the US market. It’s one thing for a car not to hit its target market, but for this price, with this range, and with that interior, it is borderline unacceptable from a car company capable of way, way better things.

I own a Volvo; I have been rooting for them for years, and it does feel rude to kick them while they’re down, given how the plug on this car has already been pulled. And where credit is due, Volvo is, allegedly, already in the process of replacing the EX30 for the US market with something similar, which does give me some hope.

But even with the promise of a hypothetically better car, for the first time in my life, I am skeptical of Volvo. I’m looking forward to, at some point, driving the new EX60 and hopefully leaving my worries behind me, but until now, I am left disappointed and concerned.

This car can never happen, ever again. 

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Source: Zander Sutton | Motor1