- Older IC Volvos can’t keep up with the EX30 plug-in during the long winters in the north. It can drive along subarctic forest roads with moose and reindeer.
- Volvo’s EX30 can be fun or annoying on an Arctic ice track, but it is also reliable and completely safe.
- Only people who are interested in buying will be able to say if the price is too high since the payoff is a big drop in range per charge in the green Arctic winter months.
As a nod to their Nordic roots, Volvo wants you to know that their electric cars, like the newly announced EX30 SUV, are safe to drive in the worst weather and can handle the harshness of an Arctic winter. The company sent a group of car writers to drive EX30s on ice tracks and roads close to Sweden’s Arctic Circle to show this.
After a few days in a place where the sun doesn’t shine much in the winter, we can say with certainty that Volvo has protected the EX30. By SUV terms, the 2025 EX30 is also very small. When measured bumper to bumper, it’s 166.7 inches shorter than the Volvo XC90, which has been around for a long time. That’s three inches less than the Chevrolet Bolt EUV and eight inches less than the well-known XC40 tiny. The EX30 is smaller and more maneuverable than the SUVs we’ve already talked about because it has less up-high mass and directional swaying.
You can choose between two choices. The single motor in the Single Motor Extended Range powers the back axle. It makes 268 horsepower and 253 lb-ft of torque. With its 69-kWh battery, Volvo says it can go from 0 to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds and reach a managed top speed of 112 mph. The EPA says it can go 275 miles.
The Two Motor Performance EX30 boosts power to 400 lb-ft and 422 horsepower by adding a motor to the front axle. With the same battery, it can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.4 seconds, keeping its top speed and range of about 268 miles.
The rear-drive EX30 also costs $36,245 with destination because it was cleverly designed. There are ways to save money, like not having any switches that need to be worked by hand. This only happens sometimes with electric cars, whether they are high-end or not. It’s more than $10,000 less than the average price of a new car in March 2024, and it’s also about the same price as some IC cars with similar features.
Feel safe? Start at a frozen lake about sixty miles northeast of Lulea. Volvo did race, but we’re talking about something else. The course is about two miles long and has about a dozen turns spread out over that distance. It was dug through 36 inches of ice on top of the snow.
The Single Motor EX30 works best on an ice track when it is run without overdrive. Keep the turning light, only use a light brake at the end of faster sections, and keep the stability control on. As long as you do that and let the nannies do their job, driving the Single Motor is as easy as using the steering wheel to stay in its designated lanes.
A smooth surface won’t let you go fast, but it will let you move slowly and steadily without any problems. The electronic parts let you keep it almost flat, which is like driving a car with big tires and not enough power around a paved circle. If we claim that something is “safe like a Volvo,” we mean it.
You could, of course, turn off all stability control and slide and bounce over the bumps like Kalle Rovanperä from Rally Finland. The higher intervention level only makes the back wheels spin faster if you need to get out of a jam, and the EX30’s studded Michelin X-Ice North4 tires can’t handle light throttle tries.
If you brake more forcefully, later, and harder, you might also damage the next two or three bends. You lose your constant momentum when you use the rally-racer approach, and you end up falling into a snowbank. It is unlikely that they will be able to speed you up through all of those steps.
The Dual Motor EX30 is the best choice if you want to have fun. It is designed to go faster on groomed ice because it has more power and motive force spread across all four blades.
Performance Mode locks it in all-wheel drive instead of turning off the front motor to save fuel. It also sends about 40/60 of its power from the front to the back. The EX30 can stop on ice because its weight is evenly distributed, with most of it being low in the frame. Making a bigger effort here will help in several ways.
Still, leaving early is a good idea. But if you use the stop at the right time and give the Dual Motor some gas, sorry, watts, you can speed up out of an ice bend. The studs will let the tires move in a strong plowing action.
It’s not as clear that ham-fisted violence is bad in the Single Motor. The Dual Motor’s uneven backward torque lets the back wheels slip without losing all front-wheel grip, and four-wheel power makes it easier to get back on track after losing it. Old-timers, think! It’s fun to drive a small electric car on the ice.
How many EX30 drivers are going to take their electric car to the closest ice track? Five? Twenty? Crazy? Without question, a lot of people will drive during blizzards or on snowy, untreated roads that are unsafe. The same things that make the EX30 good at handling an ice track will also come in handy in most of northern Canada and the US.
People who live in Arctic Sweden go amazingly fast along forest trails that moose and reindeer use. The snow is sometimes packed down, sometimes washed, and is often covered with something that looks like grit to help people walk on it. When it snows, EX30 is fine keeping up. Even with tires that have spikes on them, the ride is strong without being rough, and the trip is relaxed.
If so, is this heaven for electric cars? Perhaps not. People have grown used to hearing and feeling the sounds and movements of a gasoline engine revving over the years. On the ice track, you won’t be able to do that. It’s important, but a 26-year-old won’t worry as much about it.
It makes the most sense to do what is most clear. If you ever wondered if the EX30 could carry people comfortably in very cold and difficult conditions, you should think again. But how long will you doubt?
Volvo changed the test cars often, which was partly because they got very dirty from snow and dirt. This meant that the EX30’s range could not be properly evaluated. One supervising engineer did tell us, though, that if it freezes (as opposed to 70 degrees F), it might drop by 25%, all other things being equal.
That’s just the start. In northern Sweden, temperatures drop below zero for long periods, and as temperatures drop, the range decline curve gets steeper. Then there are the snow tires with spikes that you need in these situations and your desire to stay warm.
The EX30 was one of the first cars to use an electric heat pump, so we didn’t need to cover the outside when we drove around the ice track. It will be less useful, though, if you stay warm for a short time when it gets below zero. It’s not impossible to imagine a drop of 40 to 50 percent in miles per charge.
In Norway, where the fastest DC chargers are easy to find, it doesn’t mean as much. In Sidney, Montana, and International Falls, Minnesota, it means more. You choose how much range is enough.
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