Motoring16.07.2024

5,000km in the EX30 — Volvo’s electric bullet car reviewed

The Volvo EX30 offers an exhilarating driving experience, powerful safety features, and impeccable comfort for couples or small families.

For the past three months, I have been daily-driving the electric crossover, which is not only Volvo’s most affordable electric vehicle (EV) but its quickest production car yet.

During that time, I used the EX30 to cover around 5,000km, including my commute between home and work and several inner-city trips.

I also took it on two extended road trips to the Golden Gate National Park and Durban to see how feasible it would prove for long-distance travelling, a sore point for many EV critics.

The EX30 has left me thoroughly impressed throughout this time.

Volvo offers its latest EV with one of two powertrains, starting with the entry-level R791,900 single-motor rear-wheel-drive model.

It packs 200kW peak power and 343Nm torque that allows it to accelerate from zero to 100km/h in 5.7 seconds, making it the fastest-accelerating car in South Africa for under R800,000.

However, the model Volvo provided for MyBroadband’s tests was the top-of-the-range Ultra Twin Motor Performance.

Its price tag of around R1 million nets you an all-wheel drive configuration providing a combined output of 315kW and 543Nm torque.

That makes it capable of accelerating from a standstill to 100km/h in 3.6 seconds, the quickest off-the-mark speed of any new car below R1.5 million.

The most obvious result — cars that were next to me at a traffic light quickly shrank into the distance when it turned green, even when I did not go anywhere near flooring it.

On the safe (and legal) occasions where I did properly put the EX30 through its paces, the push-back-into-your-seat acceleration left me with a broad smile.

The passengers in the car, on the other hand, were prone to short outbursts of joy, astonishment, or slight panic.

Volvo EX30 at Golden Gate Highlands National Park in the Free State.

The EX30’s steering offered a good balance between sharp and comfortable handling in its medium setting.

Those with a more relaxed driving style can choose to switch to a soft feel, while a firm setting provides a sportier response.

With my admittedly spirited driving manners, I recorded an average energy consumption of 20.5kWh over the last three months.

That meant the extended battery pack in the model I tested would realistically achieve a range of around 312km on a single charge, about 68% of the WLTP range of 460km.

However, many other EX30 owners in South Africa have seen substantially better consumption figures, ranging from about 16kWh to 19kWh per 100km on long journeys.

Designing for the minimalists

The exterior of the EX30 is futuristic yet familiar, with Volvo-esque elements such as the signature Thor’s hammer headlights and high-rising rear lights.

Despite the lower profile black colour of the model I tested, the EX30 drew the attention of many a curious onlooker.

While the exterior was easy on the eye for most, the interior will appeal to minimalists.

The dashboard has zero buttons, and nearly all the infotainment and driver settings are displayed on a 12.3-inch portrait-oriented touch display in the middle.

Several pieces of tech have also replaced the digital or physical instrument cluster behind the steering wheel to detect whether the driver is paying attention to the road.

The top half of the centre screen is not interactive and features the most important information, like speed, gear selection, and vehicle diagnostics.

The screen’s contents were easy to see on the brightest days, even with the permanent panoramic glass roof overhead.

Volvo EX30 from the driver’s view

It was quick to get a hang of controlling features like air conditioning, media playback, navigation, driving, and charging settings through the screen.

Although we experienced no lagging or major glitches with the software, we did experience a minor “black screen” bug soon after starting up the car on three occasions.

However, these lasted for a very short period and resolved themselves. In case the screen misbehaves, there is also a manual method of resetting it via the steering wheel buttons.

This issue is among several that are getting fixed with software updates in the next few months.

For those who prefer to use the touch screen as little as possible, the integrated Google Assistant was great at performing several tasks with voice commands.

These included operating the fans and air conditioning, navigation, and media controls.

The button-free theme continues throughout the rest of the car.

The window and locking controls usually located in the doors are at the front of the centre armrest.

In the back, the only buttons are the window controls at the back of the centre armrest and two capacitive buttons in the roof for lights on either side.

There are also no speakers in any of the doors. Instead, Volvo has fitted the EX30 with a single cabin-wide Harmon Kardon soundbar with QuantumLogic virtual surround sound installed underneath the windscreen.

Given Volvo’s reputation, it is no surprise that the EX30 comes packed with substantial safety features — including excellent driver-assistance systems.

Volvo’s Pilot Assist was great at automatically managing acceleration, braking, and lane-keeping while we were driving on well-marked highways, regional routes, and urban roads.

I was impressed by how accurately the system kept track of the surrounding vehicles.

Other standout safety features in the EX30 included a 360-degree camera, lane-keeping assist, driver alert monitoring and warnings, speed and road sign detection, speed limit warnings, blindspot detection and warnings, and pinpoint proximity sensors with distances shown in centimetres.

Overall, the EX30’s mix of performance, comfort, safety, and tech features made for a highly enjoyable ride and is a compelling EV at a competitive price point.

Below are more photos of the Volvo EX30 Ultra Twin Motor Performance.