Volvo EX30 review

The whole cabin is designed to save energy and materials and component numbers, done with a modern Scandi-minimalist vibe that we find very attractive. The dash has few mouldings, the vents are simple but effective, the doors have materially light but comfy armrests.

Part of the dash is a soundbar, which saves trim and also opens up bigger door bins because it’s the only speaker in the whole car. Enabled by its EV flat floor, there's also a versatile storage console down the centre and retractable cup holders. 

The front seats are soft yet supportive. We struggle to see why the wheel is so square. It doesn't improve visibility of the road and there aren’t even any dials behind it to sneak a peek at. This isn't an F1 car, a round wheel would have done the trick.

But I see no switches, no instruments...

Yup, this is where the minimal-parts thing grates with us. As with the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, there's no driver's instrument pod, so you have to look left as well as down. Fair enough, you get used to it and Volvo has timed the eye movement and says it's not materially different from a speedo mounted straight ahead. But we found ourselves more likely to miss things like pop-up navigation instructions.

And then the menus. Oh, the menus. Even the mirror adjustment, never mind the climate controls, are resident on-screen. Think how often you have to adjust the mirrors when manoeuvring. And if you select reverse, you’re then blocked from accessing the menu where the mirror adjustment resides. Who thought that was a good idea rather than offering a helpful pop-up shortcut? Won’t somebody think of the parallel parkers?

Plus, things you might want to do in a hurry, like turning on the dipped beam or foglights, take the same number of finger-jabs – four – as things you adjust only when parked, like the charge schedule. There is a quick-access menu, but they chose eccentric things to live there: why is changing ambient light colour so urgent?

It's a good-looking and responsive screen, but the hierarchy of menus is wrong for us, and it's nowhere near customisable enough. You should at least be able to choose your own buttons on the quick menu. Maybe they'll do an OTA update to fix this.

Bizarrely, although you need to go into the screen to adjust the mirrors, the electric seats – standard with the Ultra trim – have actual switches. Perhaps worth noting that the window switches are a la ID.3 too, so you only get two switches up front and then a little toggle to switch to control over the rear windows. 

What's it like in the rear?

Life isn't great in the back. The tight legroom and high floor raise your knees acutely, making it feel cramped. A let-down given the EX30 is as long overall as an ID.3.

There's a decent, 400-litre boot with a double floor (make that 904 litres with the seats down), and a 61-litre frunk that's small but useful for your charging cable and other grubby knick-knacks.