The 2025 Volvo EX30 is a fascinating new generation of Volvo. It’s an all-electric, subcompact SUV carefully positioned to take on the likes of Hyundai’s justly acclaimed Ioniq 5 by blending Tesla-esque tech, Swedish sensibility, and a healthy dose of traditional Volvo quirkiness. Because even the most mundane Volvos have always been interesting in some capacity.
The EX30 is somewhat reminiscent of the BMW i3. It too was a tiny, quirky, forward-thinking electric crossover that skilfully made its use of sustainable materials and conscientious design a style point, rather than a footnote. On the topic of style points, the EX30 picks up a lot of them with its sharp, handsome, very modern and distinctly Volvo design ethos. The two EX30s we sampled—a single-motor model finished in Vapour Grey, and a dual-motor in Cloud Blue, both new colours for 2025—looked particularly sharp with their two-tone black roofs and matching 19-inch wheels. They garnered a surprising amount of second-glances around town; I’m not embellishing, I counted four stares, significantly higher than the usual zero.
The sharp style continues inside, as the EX30 adopts—for the first time in a very long time, for a Volvo—an all-new design language. Volvo interiors have always been fairly minimalistic, but this pushes it to another level, leaning about as far into minimalism as is possible without being stark. There are no buttons save for a few capacitive buttons on the overhead console and steering wheel. The doors are barren, with window switches being relocated to the clever floating centre console. Even then, there are only two, with a toggle between the front and rear a la Volkswagen ID.4. There aren’t even any speakers anywhere; they’re relegated to a soundbar over the floating dashboard.
It’s exceptionally clean but not at all plain. Volvo took care to imbue tasteful flourishes of style by using contrasting colours and materials; this is where the resemblance to the BMW i3 is the most apparent. Volvo puts its recycled plastics proudly on display, making up the the entire lower dash, centre console, and door panels, contrasted with Nordico leatherette, also sustainably sourced from tree oils. The single-motor EX30 we drove featured the Indigo interior colourway, adding dark blue trim and denim-style textile on the seats, while our dual-motor tester had the lighter, almost off-blue Breeze interior option. Some might consider this cost-cutting—recycled hard-touch plastics, no real leather—and they’d be right. But Volvo executed it in such a way that it doesn’t feel cheap. It all feels of quality, looks elegant, and works well.
The highlight of the cabin space is the portrait-oriented 12.3-inch central touchscreen display. It’s divided into three sections: the top sliver stands in for the missing gauge cluster, the middle (and largest) portion handles infotainment, and the bottom sliver makes up the climate controls and other functions. The software is totally reworked from what we’ve seen on past Volvos, running Android Automotive with a very clean Volvo skin. The screen is pin-sharp and has excellent contrast even in bright light, animations are fluid, and responses are snappy. It’s a huge upgrade in a lot of ways, and it’s capable of receiving updates over-the-air so it can keep getting better.
Opinions around the office were mixed on the new interface, but we all arrived at the same conclusion: it’s very derivative of what people like about Tesla’s software, but executed more carefully and with far more consideration for safety. But even that divided us. I personally really liked it; the home screen and integration of Google Maps, media, and phone connectivity is super intuitive. Shortcuts to vehicle controls and other settings are easy to figure out. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are standard and wireless.
Where it started to lose me was the integration of its safety tech. The EX30 has more sensors than the original space shuttle, with a radar array in the windshield to precisely sense traffic and road lines. All of this is projected onto the top, gauge cluster portion portion of the centre screen. It also uses infrared cameras to monitor driver attention, and a perimeter of high-resolution cameras along with sensors capable of giving you a precise distance readout as you approach an object make up up a surround-view parking monitor.
But it can be a little frustrating. In its pursuit of safety, the EX30’s attention-monitoring system will constantly nag you for taking your eyes off the road to look at the screen, even though every single function is on the screen. It demands vigilance and I get what Volvo’s engineers were going for, but it struck some of us as a little counter-intuitive. It’s not obnoxious about it, omitting a quiet gong and and a pop-up message to remind you to pay attention—which you’ll probably have to squint at to read on the screen, and get pinged at again for not paying attention. It also pings every time the speed limit changes. “Why is this thing always yelling at me?!” one of my grumpier colleagues griped.
It doesn’t not work, but it could benefit from a little refining, because we were tempted to disable these systems and that would undermine the purpose of them altogether. A lot of these foibles would be solved with a display in front of the driver, as seen on the EX90. Some things are a little too simple as well; there’s no way to defeat traction control, and there’s no adjustment—just on and off—for regenerative braking and one-pedal driving. That in particular is exceptionally unfortunate, because one-pedal drive doesn’t work very well. It’s too weak to come to a confident stop most of the time, stops too abruptly when it does, and is awkward about transitioning on- and off-throttle. Volvo already mastered this in their existing EVs and PHEVs; it’s disappointing they’ve tweaked the calibration away from what was already so good. Whatever the reason may be for this, I’m hoping it gets sorted via an over-the-air update.
But with one-pedal disabled, the2025 Volvo EX30—whether in single- or dual-motor variety—drives very well and feels great. Single-motor models are rear-wheel-drive, producing 268 horsepower and 253 pound-feet of torque. Dual-motor models are all-wheel-drive, upping the ante with 422 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque. Both models are fed by a 64 kWh battery, built on a new 400-volt architecture capable of charging at a peak rate of 153 kW. Provided all the stars line up at a sufficiently healthy DC charger, Volvo says you can go from 10 to 80 per cent in 30 minutes.
Perhaps more importantly, on our modest 50-amp, 220-volt Level 2 charger at the office—perhaps more representative of what you’d have at home—the EX30 picks up a charge pretty quickly. I observed a 70-to-100 per cent charge in just over a couple of hours. This is very useful because real-world range is good, but not great. Volvo estimates 420 kilometres on single-motor EX30s, while dual-motor models incur a slight range penalty in exchange for all-wheel-drive, bringing it down to 402 km.
Real-world use is mixed, only somewhat thrown off by a startlingly negative-Nelly range calculator. As is with any EV, cold weather takes a serious bite out of effective range; I observed a 25 per cent loss right off the top at around freezing, but the range decreased pretty linearly with distance, rather than falling off a cliff. The range computer is calibrated to be quite pessimistic (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) and accounts for changing conditions on the fly, but is generally pretty accurate. We had the dual-motor EX30 during a vicious cold snap—we’re talking -15˚C during the day—and observed about 250 km over those worst-case-scenario conditions.
Both models are capable of exuberant acceleration. The single-motor EX30 especially feels a lot quicker than its numbers convey, so much so that it almost makes me question opting for the dual-motor model. Its only apparent advantage is the greatly increased low-speed traction via all-wheel-drive, as puts the power down much more confidently and launch much harder, if you’re so inclined. Either way, both powertrain options feel properly quick around town and more than capable on the highway.
Among the realm of small commuter EVs, the EX30 is comfortably among the most satisfying to drive and fun to flick around. I’d argue only the Mini Countryman SE challenges the EX30’s composure. The chassis is well set up to embrace performance, with well-controlled body motions—much more so than the Ioniq 5—at the expense of being a touch on the firm side. The squared steering wheel feels surprisingly natural and does a great job of telegraphing what the front wheels are doing, striking a typical-Volvo balance of being confidence inspiring, athletic, and relaxed, all at once.
It’s easy to stay relaxed with the EX30’s fabulous seats and generous isolation from wind and road noise. It also helps that with Volvo’s radar-guided Pilot Assist, the EX30 can practically drive itself and takes a lot of the fatigue out of driving, not that the EX30 is tiring, save for the constant soft warning chimes. The Harman Kardon soundbar performs better than you might expect, too. The EX30 is quite a tiny vehicle so while the cabin does feel spacious, rear seat room is a little compromised, doubly so if your front seat passenger is long-legged and/or selfish. Rear cargo space is quite healthy at 400 litres, and the seats can easily fold flat to expand the cargo area to 904 litres. There’s a generous amount of storage in the centre tray, integrated charging pad, and clever sliding cupholder that can convert to an additional storage tray in the floating center console. The EX30 is quite a practical little thing.
Pricing starts at $53,700 for the base, single-motor Core model, goes up to $56,900 for the Plus which adds niceties like a panoramic roof, a power liftgate and customizable interior lighting, and our loaded Ultra tester rings in at $59,100 as-tested and adds 3D parking cameras, automatic parking, and expanded adaptive cruise control with Volvo’s Pilot assist. The twin-motor adds an additional three grand to the tally.
That pricing puts it right smack in-line with the inimitable Hyundai Ioniq 5. While the Hyundai is a little larger, the Volvo offers significantly more power, a far more accomplished chassis, comparable range and charging, a cleaner and more modern design, nicer interior materials, and overall more boutique feel. They’ve seemingly positioned it very deliberately to be a conquest vehicle to capture new buyers and take the brand in a new direction, but only time will tell if the 2025 Volvo EX30 can take a bite out of the Hyundai Ioniq 5’s crown.
