What do you get if you mix a healthy dose of Chinese assisted driving (ADAS) capabilities, EV scaling know-how, Silicon Valley operating systems, some Scandinavian design and European brand-equity? In short... the all- electrically dedicated, entry-level, and profitable from the starting gun, baby Volvo EX30.
BARCELONA, SPAIN – It’s become a rarity for car manufacturers to use adjectives such as small and compact in the same sentence as electric, but Volvo Cars is doing exactly that in 2023, presenting the smallest model in their line-up. It may not be getting down to kei-car dimensions just yet, but at just over 0.2 metres shorter than the current entry-level XC40 model, it is a giant step downwards into the popular B/C segment compact crossover segment. However, despite its condensed dimensions, this is a huge leap forward for the Swedish-based company that belongs 80% to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. While the Chinese took control of the company in the early 2000s as former-owner Ford off-loaded it, following the sales of other PAG (Premium Automotive Group) brands, Jaguar Land Rover to Tata Motors in 2008 and Aston Martin one year earlier to a diverse consortium, Volvo now looks best placed to champion going forward. The change of owners was originally seen at the time as the start of a downward spiral for the Swedish- based car group that is about to celebrate its centenary anniversary. However, in hindsight, this probably marked the moment that China’s auto potential and speed of transformation came onto the radars of most commentators, indicating the first tangible shift in the automotive landscape, switching focus from Europe, Japan, the US and increasingly Korea towards China.
Over one decade later, in a marriage that many didn’t see lasting, the EX30 can perhaps be described as the first genuine fruit of that labour.
Based on the Geely Group-wide new all-electric SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) architecture, the EX30 is based on the smaller of the two architectures (SEA2) and can be described as the equivalent of Volkswagen’s MEB, which underpins more compact cars like the VW ID.3 and Audi Q4 while the SEA1 architecture that uses in part similar mega-press manufacturing techniques to Tesla, will support larger models, similar to VW Group’s PPE platform.
In fact, the similarity doesn’t end there, with the Geely empire taking a similar path to VW Group’s brand spectrum, built up under Ferdinand Piëch, that encompasses brands from Škoda to Bugatti.
Li Shufu, the architect behind Geely, appears to be creating something similar with holdings in brands ranging from Lotus, Volvo Cars, Smart, and Mercedes-Benz to new Chinese upstarts such as Lynk&Co, Polestar and Zeekr, enabling Chinese competence to be leveraged across established brands holding both equity and legacy, allowing a route into the old continent by stealth.
Shufu described Volvo of being a tiger kept in a zoo under Ford ownership at the time of his acquisition, waiting to be liberated and run wild once again.
Meanwhile, Volvo has decided to manufacture the European version of the EX30, which already promises a gross margin of 15-20% from launch and notably reaching parity with ICEs at the higher trim levels, in Europe from 2025 at its Ghent facility in Belgium, which is conveniently located adjacent to a roll-on roll-off export terminal for further distribution to other parts of Europe, notably, the UK which soaks up the highest numbers of Volvo cars Western Europe sales.
After ten months this year the UK accounted for every fifth Volvo delivered across the 18 market region.
The 41,656 UK units compared to 31,187 units in its domestic Swedish home market, where it holds the highest regional- national share of new car registrations, seeing 13.3% of all new models attributed to Volvo.
The Europe production hub also offers Volvo a get-out-of- jail-free card when it comes to the potential increase in import tariffs from China, with the ongoing EU investigation taking place and likely to conclude just as the switch from the Chinese Zhangjiakou facility to the Ghent European production site begins, although the company said this wasn’t part of their decision making at the time.
However, as the Nordic markets transition to BEVs fastest, with the five Nordic markets seeing 45% of their new car market accounted for by BEVs this year compared to 16.3% across Western Europe, Volvo has effectively been offering just one model, the ICE based XC40/C40, also manufactured in Ghent. 62,500 of the 255,000 new BEVs in the Nordic markets were made up of Tesla models this year, or every fourth BEV model.
With the union disputes taking place in Sweden and seeing contagion in Norway and Denmark, once again Vovlo’s launch timing of the EX30 seems very fortunate.
Assuming they can persuade some of those image- damaged Tesla customers to jump ship to Volvo, that would help further in their striving to reach their European growth ambitions. Alongside Ghent and Torslande in Sweden, they will open a third European production site in Slovakia in 2026, giving Volvo a European production capacity of 600,000 units annually.
This would put it one step closer to equivalent West European annual volumes of the likes of Audi and BMW. Volvo’s record West European sales achieved just over half of that amount in 2019, giving an indication of their ambitions.
However, it remains open if all of that 0.6 million European production capacity will be just for Volvo, with Geely brands such as Zeekr and Polestar, using identical underpinnings, also likely keen to accommodate some of that capacity.
However, back to the product that helps lead the way to the 600,000 target. The baby Volvo, which starts at €36,590 for the single motor entry-level version fitted with a 51kWh battery, which is covered by an eight year/160,000 km battery guarantee, returns a WLTP range of 344km.
Measuring 4,233m in length puts it in the same category as the likes of Volkswagen’s ID.3, which is only available in the top-of-the-range trim level currently, fitted with a 58kWh battery starting with a premium of €3,405.
The Volvo’s single motor with extended range, thanks to the larger 69kWh battery, provides a range of almost 500km (476km), and is the model that makes the most sense if one’s pockets can stretch €5,200 further to €41,790.
Especially given that the larger battery only adds 10kg to the weight of the car over the lower range version, which tips the scales at 1,840kg.
The top-of-the-range twin-motor performance all-wheel-drive version featuring the same battery isn’t worth the €6,790 extra over the extended range version given the added weight (1,960kg curb weight) with the additional motor cutting the range by 26km, whereas a rear-wheel drive model fitted with the appropriate tyres is usually appropriate for 95% of most road conditions.
Although the kick of reaching 100km/h in just 3.6 seconds from a standstill is something one wouldn’t have ever considered from a Volvo, and the thrill of racing up the mountain roads surrounding Barcelona on the test route was exhilarating.
However, the entry-level, with an acceleration time of 5.7 seconds, is plenty. Perhaps even more crucial, maximum DC fast-charging speeds of 134kW for entry-level single motor and 153kW for both models featuring the larger battery is totally acceptable for longer summer or winter vacations where using a standard fast-charging motorway DC charger, it is possible to recharge from 10-80% in little more than 20 minutes, or in layman’s terms a toilet and espresso break.
Offering the Scandinavian concept of hygge throughout the interior, the EX30 is also not a bad place to spend your time while recharging car and mind.
While Tesla can claim they made minimalistic interiors cool, disguising cost cuttings with controls migrating to the steering wheel or touch screen, Volvo has taken that one step further, stripping out almost all non-essential wiring and shifting the speaker system to a soundbar located at the front of the vehicle with rear speakers optional.
Even more Nodicness can be achieved by playing around with the interior settings, providing lighting and soundscapes, creating interior atmospheres and some of that hygge feeling on the go, making a Mercedes interior appear like a cheap garish funfair.
So think of the EX30 as the baby-faced assassin with Chinese foundations, fitted out with Scandinavian understated luxury all in a clean compact package.
The EX30 could be the most dangerous weapon Geely has used to penetrate Europe so far in fact. German manufactures should be scared, especially as some exit this sector they call unprofitable and leave the door wide open.
Välkommen Volvo!
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*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK
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