Tested: Is the 2025 Volvo EX30 the Tesla alternative we were promised?

USA Today

2 days ago

Tesla's influence shows up everywhere in the 2025 Volvo EX30. You see it in the speedometer relegated to a corner of the infotainment touchscreen. You see it in the gear selector stalk that doubles as the cruise control switchgear. And you see it in the credit-card-style key that's meant to be a backup to using your phone for unlocking and starting the vehicle. All of this is cost-saving minimalism cleverly passed off as modernism, an art that Tesla — and now Volvo — has nearly perfected in its pursuit of making attainable (and profitable) EVs.
Of all the parallels between the EX30 and a Tesla, the strongest similarity is one that no automaker should imitate: the mile-wide gap between what the automaker originally promised and the car it eventually delivered.
Just two years ago, Volvo introduced the EX30 as the cheap and cheerful cure for too-expensive EVs with a $36,245 starting price and 275 miles of range. Yet the only EX30 you can buy in the U.S. right now and for the foreseeable future costs nearly $10,000 more than that and landed well short of 200 miles in MotorTrend's Road-Trip Range test. Volvo set out to build the $35K EV that Tesla has long teased and appears to have come to the same conclusion: It can't be done. (Chevy has proven otherwise.)
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Trading value for performance
It's a shame that the launch turned into a bait and switch because the $46,195 Volvo EX30 Twin Motor Performance is awesome in its own right. Imagine an electric Volkswagen GTI with 422 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like to drive. Presented with a gap in traffic or an empty roundabout, the EX30 rockets through with an exuberance that matches its Moss Yellow paint.
It is not, however, a rowdy little hooligan of a hatchback as the specs suggest. Exercising characteristic restraint, Volvo delivers all that oomph as a shove rather than a gut punch. The EX30 launches with the faintest scrape of spinning tires, and power builds linearly over the first 20 or so mph. Hitting 60 mph in 3.2 seconds has never felt so civilized. When the EX30 zips past the quarter-mile mark in 11.8 seconds, it does so up against the 112-mph speed limiter that Volvo rolled out across its lineup five years ago in the name of safety.
Similarly, the EX30 steers and turns and tackles bumps capably without ever feeling overtly aggressive. Its 110-foot stop from 60 mph and 0.87 g of cornering grip are decent for a 4,190-pound vehicle on all-season tires but hardly the makings of a four-door sports car. For a Volvo, that's perfect. The EX30 Twin Motor Performance is fun to hustle and pleasant to commute in, making it a great daily driver.
How to make a cheap car feel expensive
The danger of buying the expensive version of a cheap car is that so much of a car is designed and engineered for the lowest-priced model. That's the story of the Ford Maverick. At $33,000, it feels like a value. In a $43,000 model, you can't ignore the flashing and exposed edges on many of the injection-molded plastic parts.
Like the Maverick, the EX30 uses texture and color to turn cheap interior materials into eye candy. Unlike Ford, Volvo has engineered the fit and finish so that those materials also look and — where it matters — feel expensive. The sense of quality is furthered by the cabin's thoughtful and innovative design. The glove box drops from the center of the dash to give the front passenger more kneeroom. Instead of a conventional center console, a bin slides out from below the fixed center armrest with a clever, independently sliding top plate that allows you to allocate the space for cupholders or catchall storage.
As noted at the beginning of this story, it's not hard to find where Volvo has cut cost from the bill of materials. Look at how simple the climate vents are. The front doors have been stripped of nearly all electronics, with the driver and passenger sharing two window switches in the center console to control all four windows. The front speakers all live in a soundbar running across the top of the dash, which unfortunately takes a toll on the audio system's sound quality.
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What would have been easily justified trade-offs in a $36,245 EX30 are tougher to swallow at our test car's $48,395 sticker price, but the cabin is ultimately an industrial design masterpiece. Funky and original, the EX30 feels like the spiritual successor of the quirky 2008–2013 Volvo C30.
The EX30's petite size reinforces the connection with that decade-old Volvo. The four-door EX30 measures about an inch shorter than the two-door C30 (and 5 inches shorter than the Toyota Corolla hatchback). As a result, the rear seats are only functional if your kids have the anatomy of a Squishmallow, and emptying a full Costco cart into the EX30's 12.4-cubic-foot cargo hold will test your Tetris skills.
Volvo EX30 real-world range and charging
The most consequential cost-cutting measure naturally shows up in what's the most expensive part of any EV, the battery. The EX30's lithium-ion pack stores 64.0 kWh of electricity, less than the late (but soon-to-be-resurrected) Chevrolet Bolt EV. Officially, the Volvo EX30 Twin Motor Performance is rated for a reasonable 253 miles on a full charge. At a steady 70 mph in the real world, though, we achieved an impractical 180 miles. That 29 percent gap between the window sticker and our measurement (which admittedly only looks at 95 percent of a full charge) makes the EX30 one of the worst performers in the MotorTrend Road-Trip Range test.
Its fast-charging performance is similarly underwhelming. Power peaks at 153 kW and quickly tapers off, delivering enough juice in 15 minutes to cover just 87 miles at 70 mph. Given the EX30's size, limited range and mediocre charging, there are far better options at this price point — pretty much any EV at this price point — for anyone planning on road-tripping their electric vehicle.
Getting techy
Tesla's influence is palpable in the nearly button-free dashboard. The EX30 runs nearly all its major controls through a scaled-down version of the Android Automotive–based infotainment system found in the larger EX90. Thankfully the EX30 hasn't been plagued by the litany of software quality complaints owners have logged against Volvo's new flagship EV, and our reviewers took to the user interface quickly. We like that you can download apps such as Spotify and Waze directly to the 12.3-inch touchscreen and that it offers the familiar comfort of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for those who aren't ready for such newfangled ideas.
The EX30 comes in two versions, the standard Plus trim and the $1,700 Ultra upgrade that adds a 360-degree camera system, automated parking, ambient cabin lighting, a cabin air filter, LED headlights and Pilot Assist, Volvo's conservative take on Tesla's Full Self-Driving. It can center the EX30 in its lane, slow or accelerate with traffic, and even guide the vehicle through a lane change, but all of this requires the driver to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. We appreciate a cautious, safety-first approach, but the value of Pilot Assist seems marginal compared to Ford's BlueCruise or GM's Super Cruise. Given its limited capabilities, we'd be inclined to pass on the Ultra trim to try to keep the price in check.
A lesson learned?
The Volvo EX30 Twin Motor Performance's straight-line speed, polished driving dynamics, and fetching design tug at our emotions, but it's hard not to feel jilted once you climb out of the driver's seat and look at the vehicle in the larger context. Volvo originally pitched the EX30 as a value play that would get more Americans into EVs. Instead, we got a tiny hot rod of a luxury car for a niche buyer.
For now, the work of pushing EVs into the mainstream will have to be carried out by larger, cheaper, longer-range alternatives such as the Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Chevy Equinox EV. Should Volvo someday figure out how to bring the entry, single-motor EX30 to America (specs for which are included on the U.S. media site), we hope it's learned an important lesson: Wait until you're shipping the cars to the U.S. to announce the price.
Photos by Jim Fets