The 2025 Volvo EX30 shows Tesla’s influence clearly. One may notice it on the speedometer, located in a corner of the entertainment touchscreen. Designed as a backup for unlocking and starting the car using a phone, the credit-card-style key also demonstrates this influence. This method perfectly reflects cost-saving minimalism camouflaged as contemporary, a talent both Tesla and Volvo have almost achieved in their search for affordable electric automobiles.
Among the many parallels between the 2025 Volvo EX30 and a Tesla Model 3, the most important is one no carmaker should imitate: the great gulf between the claims made by the manufacturer and the ultimate product handed out. Volvo unveiled the EX30 just two years ago as an inexpensive and happy answer to the excessive costs of electric vehicles, claiming a starting price of $36,245 and a range of 275 miles.
Volvo had hoped to develop a $35,000 electric vehicle that Tesla has long alluded to, but it arrived at the same conclusion: it is unachievable. The only variant of the EX30 available for purchase in the U.S. now, and for the foreseeable future, costs almost $10,000 more and misses 200 miles in MotorTrend’s Road-Trip Range test.
It is regrettable that the launch devolved into a bait-and-switch scheme since the $46,195 Volvo EX30 Twin Motor Performance is amazing in its own right. Picture an electric Volkswagen GTI with 422 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque; you will have a fair idea of the driving experience. The Volvo EX30 accelerates with a force consistent with its Moss Yellow external when confronted with an open roundabout or a gap in traffic.
It is not, however, a small wild hatchback as the specifications would indicate. Volvo shows typical restraint by pushing instead of jolting all that energy. The Volvo EX30 flies off with the faint sound of spinning tires; the power rises gently above the first 20 mph.
