Volvo’s Smallest Car on offer – The Volvo EX30 Review

Volvo first unveiled the EX30 in 2024 with a spectacular reveal, boasting how the “small” EV has a lot to offer – and to be honest, it does. The car embodies Volvo’s plans to go as sustainable as possible while keeping the customer in mind, and this is seen through the manufacturing of this vehicle.

The interior has been manufactured from recycled materials, boasting a rather longer travel ranger on the battery, integrated technology, a rather minimal interior design, sleek exterior that really looks great BUT, dare I say again, a slight miss.

Let’s break this down: the interior is generally a minima’s dream space to be in. Given the size of the car, Volvo has done away with rather unnecessary components that might leave the car ‘clustered’ to some extent. The front passengers have multiple storage compartments that retract away when not needed. The center cup holders can easily slide back into the center console to free up some space, the glove box is integrated into the dashboard quiet neatly I might add and the extra storage on the side doors does come in handy when needed. The rear passengers, unfortunately, do not have the luxury of cup holders (although that is not a killer in terms of offering) but there is a storage bin in the rear that they can make use of. The rear passengers also have ample room to move about in the back, also considering how ‘small’ the EX30 is.

The boot space is quite generous as well, 318L of boot space that is not small at all.

The car is also fitted with a range of safety features, as one would expect out of a Volvo really – the favorite on my end being that the door sensors will pick up if someone is coming up to the door and warn you in a bid to not potentially open the door into them. Good news for cyclists. One feature that almost annoyed me was the rear sensors and how the detect objects in the back, meaning that I had to fight with the car guard every time I wanted to back out of the parking and I couldn’t because the car would detect them(and not move in a bid to help me not to hit them). The annoyance generally came from not being able to move but I guess it’s a great feature to help one not to hit any unsuspecting pedestrians.

At this point, this is where my annoyance comes in. Volvo has been known for its renowned safety features as they have essentially built their brand around it but some of the features in the car, don’t make sense.

The mirror controls in the front, for example, are in the center consoles. It is relatively easy to open and close the front windows when one needs to but there is an additional control that one must toggle when wanting to do the same to the rear doors – a hassle if one is driving.

The biggest issue that I have is that a lot of major controls are located into the infotainment system – this includes the controls for the mirrors, the entertainment system (which has both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), the climate controls and a toggle for the safety features. This was an issue for me as I felt like I would be distracted at times switching between the road and the 12” screen.

The one thing that I wished for was an actual instrument cluster that gave me some of the details (like my speed and range on the battery) but alas, it’s for the minimal look.

I do, however, feel like the Volvo EX30 is worth it, considering that one can get the plus Twin-Motor on offer for below R1 000 000. The car does drive incredible, and the performance is very sudden, especially when driving it in “performance” mode – beware as this will drain your driving range from 460KM considerably. I was not sure about the lack of a “moon-roof” as the car does not have a sunroof but I do see that it makes the interior roomier at that.

The exterior is also clean, and I do imagine that it would look mean when it is painted black. The few niggles that the car lacks(like the cluster) might not be a headache of sorts, but I do have concerns over everything being integrated into the infotainment system – and a big win for the environment considering how much recycled material went into the car. The level of details in the car does show that Volvo still spared nothing when it came to the design and execution of the car.

Volvo even went as far as reducing the level of wiring that has gone into the car, so you get a Harman Kardon soundbar across the front dashboard instead of speakers in the doors – but best believe that it still sounds good.

Personally, I am still a fan of the XC60 as my bike would fit comfortably through the back, but that’s a conversation for another day really.