2025 Volvo EX30 revealed: quick, cute EV at $36K

Oct 20, 2023

MILAN — The Volvo EX30 seems like a relatively straightforward EV. But dig a little deeper and you'll find this electric crossover is kind of a big deal. Making its debut in Milan, Italy, on Wednesday, the 2025 EX30 is Volvo's smallest SUV, yet it's also the company's quickest production car ever — by a long shot. Priced from $36,145 including an $1,195 destination charge, the EX30 will be the least expensive model in Volvo's U.S. lineup when it arrives next year. It'll even spawn Volvo's first fully electric Cross Country offering, which we can't wait to see.

The EX30's styling cues are pulled straight from the larger EX90 electric SUV, giving it a tough-li'l-guy vibe that's both cute and purposeful. I love the pronounced wheel arches and the two-tone look. You can totally see how, with more ground clearance and some cladding, this EV will easily morph into the EX30 Cross Country that's coming next year.

At 166.7 inches long, 72.3 inches wide and 61.1 inches tall, the EX30 is seriously small — about the same size as a Hyundai Kona — giving it a healthy amount of daylight from Volvo's larger, more expensive XC40 Recharge. The upright dimensions will no doubt help with headroom for front and rear passengers, and Volvo says there's 31.9 cubic feet of cargo space, which is good but not great for this class.

Step inside the EX30 and the first thing you'll notice is that the SUV's digital real estate is limited to a single central screen, powered by Google software. Absolutely everything looks to be buried in the screen — except for things like the wiper controls, thank goodness — but I'm hopeful that Volvo learned from Tesla's mistakes and keeps the control layout relatively simple. There seems to be a fixed row of climate control icons along the bottom of the vertical display, at least.

Five different ambient lighting themes will be offered, which shift in color, "adding a sense of calm," according to Volvo. In typical Scandinavian fashion, the EX30's cabin is super handsome, crafted with sustainable materials that look and feel premium.

When it arrives in the U.S., the EX30 will be offered with two powertrain options, both of which rely on a 69-kilowatt-hour cobalt-lithium-manganese-nickel composite battery, 64 kWh of which is usable. The base model, called Single Motor Extended Range, will have a rear-wheel-drive layout and produce 268 horsepower and 253 pound-feet of torque. Volvo expects this version to have a range of 275 miles on the U.S. EPA test cycle.

The Twin Motor Performance variant sacrifices a bit of range — down to 265 miles, Volvo estimates — which is a small price to pay considering its mega boost in power. The all-wheel-drive EX30 will produce 422 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque, and can accelerate to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. That's a 1.7-second improvement over the single-motor EX30, making this 4,140-pound electric SUV as quick in the 0-to-60 sprint as a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S. That's rad.

Plugged into a Level 3 DC fast charger, the EX30 can charge at a maximum rate of 153 kilowatts. That's good enough to get the battery from a 10 to 80 percent state of charge in 27 minutes, and means you can take full advantage of 150-kW public chargers. However, in a world where 200-kW charging speeds are quickly becoming the norm, this could put the EX30 at a disadvantage down the road.

Unsurprisingly, Volvo is packing the EX30 with its full suite of active safety tech, including an updated version of the company's automated parking assist that works with parallel, perpendicular, curved and diagonal spaces. There's a new alert function that'll warn you of approaching cyclists or pedestrians when parallel parked, and Volvo will offer the EX30 with phone-as-key technology, though it won't confirm exactly which smartphone models will be compatible, only saying it'll work with "a wide range" of devices.

The new EX30 is available to pre-order now, though given its 2025 model year status, don't expect deliveries to start until early 2024. Following the standard model's launch, order books for the EX30 Cross Country will open, with production expected to kick off before the end of next year.

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