Volvo EX30 long-term test: report 1

The car Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range Plus Run by Allan Muir, managing editor

Why we’re running it To see whether this small electric SUV can be provide benefits over larger, often pricier alternatives in everyday use

Needs to Be comfortable and easy to live with, nippy around town, reasonably practical and efficient enough to deliver a respectable range for longer journeys

Mileage 166 List price £39,860 Best price £38,360 Price as tested £40,660 Official range 296 miles Test range 221 miles Options fitted Power Seat Pack (£800)

17 October 2025 – Upside to downsizing

The average person in the UK makes 167.9 solo car journeys per year, according to the latest available data from the Department for Transport’s National Travel Survey. Across the entire population, that equates to around 15.7 million journeys per day with just the driver aboard. Which makes you wonder why so many of us drive such large cars. Of course, many families need the space and practicality offered by bigger SUVs and can’t necessarily afford more than one car, but clearly there are plenty of people who could benefit from driving smaller cars. Including me.

You see, most of the SUVs I’ve run as company cars previously have been large, family-sized ones, even though I don’t have a regular need to carry passengers in the back seats or bootfuls of cargo. In actual fact, a smaller SUV makes perfect sense for me – something that’s still reasonably practical for its size, yet more affordable to buy (in most cases) and potentially easier to live with in day-to-day use.

And a small electric SUV makes even more sense, because electric vehicles suit my lifestyle down to the ground and I generally prefer driving them. That’s why I’ve chosen to run a Volvo EX30 as my latest car. 

Available only in electric form, the EX30 is the upmarket Swedish brand’s smallest model, rivalling the likes of the Kia EV3, Renault 4 and Smart #1. It shares much of its underpinnings with the #1, although it has slightly larger battery options and a very different look, inside and out. There’s a Single Motor model with a 49kWh (usable capacity) battery, a 65kWh Single Motor Extended Range and a high-powered Twin Motor Performance that also uses the bigger battery. I’ve gone for the Single Motor Extended Range, which produces a healthy 268bhp and has the longest official range of the trio, at up to 296 miles.

In my chosen mid-range Plus trim, there’s a choice of two eco-friendly interior styles: dark blue Indigo or dark green Pine. My car’s interior is the former; it features a combination of a denim-like textile and a smooth, vaguely leather-like PVC material (called Nordico) that covers parts of the dashboard, doors and seats. 

The main touch points are sleek and soft, with a good-quality feel but so little in the way of patterning that the interior borders on looking plain. This is emphasised by the absence of an instrument panel in front of the driver and any controls on the dashboard; almost everything is located on a large, portrait-orientated central infotainment screen, including the digital speedometer. It’s all very minimalist and Tesla-like – although thankfully the EX30 (unlike some recent Tesla models) retains a conventional column stalk for the indicators and windscreen wipers, as well as one for the gear selector on the right-hand side. 

The exterior colour of my car is Vapour Grey; Volvo calls it a neutral, solid-effect metallic and, like the other four paint choices, it doesn’t cost extra. In my chosen spec, the EX30 comes with 19in alloy wheels, along with a generous list of other standard equipment, including adaptive cruise control, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, an electric tailgate, keyless entry and a rear-view camera. The number of advanced driver assistance features that it gets is off the scale, too. This might not prove to be entirely a good thing; we’ll see.

As you’d expect from Volvo, the EX30’s front seats are seriously supportive and comfortable. However, I’ve made doubly certain that I can achieve an ideal driving position by adding the £800 Power Seat Pack, which brings lots of electric adjustability (for the front passenger as well), including four-way lumbar support adjustment. I prefer the slightly elevated seating position to those of regular hatchbacks of a similar size, even if I have to lower the seat almost as far as it’ll go for me to fit in easily. 

It’s too early to say whether I’ll have any issues with the heavy reliance on the touchscreen, but so far the EX30 feels exceptionally good when I’m at the wheel, and its relatively compact dimensions are already proving to be a blessing when it comes to threading it along congested London streets and manoeuvring into parking spaces. The EX30 also feels lighter and more nimble than any of the electric SUVs I’ve had before. As I join those millions of other solo travellers on many of my journeys, I’m hopeful that downsizing will turn out to be a smart decision. 

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