Over the past few years, we’ve seen a vast number of crossover utility vehicles don chunkier tires and extra cladding in order to court the REI crowd just that little bit harder. It’s already easy to find three-row and compact crossovers with extra look-tough hardware, but the tendrils of off-road cosplay continue to extend downward, and the Volvo EX30 Cross Country is the latest little crossover to gain a five o’clock shadow.
It all starts with the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive variant of the EX30, an ultra-minimalist premium electric crossover that’s properly tiny. We’re talking 5.3 inches shorter than a Toyota Corolla hatchback, a footprint sized for parallel parking in downtown cores. It’s also properly quick, featuring a 64 kWh usable capacity battery pack and 422 horsepower that enables it to sprint from zero to 60 mph in less than four seconds.
Step inside an EX30 and you might be surprised to find that there just isn’t a whole lot to it. The central touchscreen display is used for pretty much everything from adjusting the mirrors to displaying vehicle speed to activating the hazard warning lights. In the console, you’ll find Volvo co-opting Volkswagen’s controversial trick of using two traditional window switches and a capacitive touch panel to operate four windows, while the cavernous door cards highlight how Volvo moved the speakers up to the dashboard. It’s the sort of sparse, tech-forward thing that user experience engineers will dig, but those used to more physical control probably won’t. Still, perfect for the tech-set, right?
The first key element of visually toughening up a mainstream crossover is raising the suspension, and Volvo’s done that here by, well, seven-tenths of an inch. Yeah, that’s not really going to make an enormous difference when it comes to off-road capability, is it? Keep in mind, the standard EX30 only has seven inches of ground clearance, whereas a standard Subaru Crosstrek has 8.7 inches. Quite the delta.
Alright, so what about tires? While Volvo does tout available all terrain tires, the standard rolling stock is simply larger than on a base model EX30, measuring 235/50R19 to the regular car’s 225/55R18. This means the overall rolling diameter has increased by six-tenths of an inch. Divide that by two to get the radius as that’s theoretically the distance from the center of the hub to the edge of the tire without any deflection, and you end up with potentially a minuscule amount more clearance from the tires alone, at least in theory.
Alright, so aside from a tiny bit more clearance and available all-terrain tires, what else does the EX30 Cross Country get over the standard all-wheel-drive model? Well, the rear suspension’s been retuned to cope with rougher roads and Volvo does claim the existence of front and rear skidplates, although those seem to be more for show than anything else. Still, this little CUV does get a great front-end graphic trim panel and some cute little wheel arch extensions, and owners will be able to choose from a range of accessories including a roof basket and mud flaps.
The real reason to buy a Volvo EX30 Cross Country is because it looks great parked near the head of a hiking trail. And at the end of the day, what’s wrong with that? Given how many mainstream crossovers feature stuff like fake diffusers and chest-beating faux vents to make them look sportier than they actually are, why not go a slightly different route with the car dress-up concept? Lean into the high-sidewall thing a little bit more and you end up with something like this. In a way, it’s more faithful to the crossovers of the 1990s, and if pricing and range work out well, going for the Cross Country over the regular EX30 seems like a solid move.
(Top graphic image: Volvo)
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Meh, this is fine. What we actually want is the EV version of the V60 CC. Something with actual space for gear and pups to park at a trailhead.
Every off-road package for a family suv/crossover is for posing. Nothing new here.
Central dorsal display instead of a display inline with the steering wheel is an automatic “nope” for me. Dorsal display with all touch and nested controls, instead of buttons is an automatic “nope” for me.
So yeah… nah.
The hazard button is on the touchscreen? So it’s permanently taking up a part of the screen’s real estate since that has to always be accessible?
I actually dig the look with the black fascia- Gives it a sort of group B rally car look. White OZ wheels for the snow tires, and it would look awesome. This would be a perfect second car for us in a few years… But they better get rid of the capacitive selector window switch unit, because I am never buying a vehicle with that feature. Has to be about worst piece of interface design in modern I’ve ever heard of.
I wouldn’t find the control choices so frustrating if I didn’t otherwise like this car.
No
Ditto. Times 10.
I’d have more respect for the clean interior if the centerpiece weren’t an ipad that may as well be glued in the center of the dash.
Smaller screen and some well-integrated physical controls would look much cleaner than the portrait oriented. It’s just not good. It has never been good.
I like the EX30 only for the fact that its so short. I feel my car is short for an SUV and this is about 6″ shorter in length. I love that for my street parking life I have in PHL. My cars spend 99% of their life on pavement so 40 series 19s is where its at though. Visually, they look better to me and they feel better darting around traffic than big sidewalls.
What is it ? Commercial?
It’s not OK with me in any way. This is pointless and stupid on soooo many levels. Delusions of butchness. Jacked up for no reason. Stupid wagon wheels. Idiotic giant screen inside for the iPad generations, plus asinine control decisions.
Not that it matters, as Volvo is even more dead to me than BMW, and that is saying something. The last Volvo I would own was built 30 years ago. I made the mistake of buying a 2004 – it wasn’t good, and they certainly haven’t gotten any better.
They better have made the traction and stability control programs adapt to loose and/or uneven surfaces. A Model Y freaks out dipping a tire off pavement. No, dammit, the road to the trailhead is not paved! Shut up and go!
Having everything on a touchscreen isn’t the end of the world after a few hours. If it’s laid out halfway competently.
Journos have been ruined by over-exposure to giant modern cars into thinking something like this is ‘tiny’. I expect Autopian staff to be better. A Smart ForTwo or Kei car should be the benchmark for tiny.
Had a friend look at a EX30 yesterday, sales guy goes “Of course this is made in Europe.”
lol.
LOL it will be soon from Ghent, home of the cheap Volvo. A 100% tariff on their cheapest car gets old quick.
Does a gravel parking lot count as off roading? I feel like that pretty mush as close to going off road as most of these SUVs will ever get
This looks better than the standard model – probably should have just been released this way. I am a fan of beefy sidewalls on tires and smaller wheels. They just make more sense from a ride comfort, weight, and tire cost perspective. I just leased an Ioniq 5 XRT trim for the same reasons. It looks kind of like a Mark 2 Golf Country because of the lift and the beefy tires and I’m more than OK with that.
The current Toyota 4Runner with the flat faced wheels and the bulky fender flares looks like a cheap toy from Dollar General precisely because the wheels have like an 85:15 ratio for rim to tire and no gap between the sides of the wheel wells and the edge of the tire. The short wheelbase relative to the huge wheels makes the effect even worse. The previous generation had the same problem, but with that one at least the grille wasn’t so thin that it made it look like somebody had stretched the bottom of the vehicle vertically to fit the huge wheels.
I respectfully disagree. The standard model looks so much better, more honest, to me.
If I ever have to own a car with a cabin like this I am trading my license for an ID card.
Give me buttons or give me public transit.
The EX30 is right at the top of my shopping list right now. If the cross country has better colour availability, it might be the option. Just need to know how tiny the back seat is/isnt. Seems like a neat slightly tall hatchback thingy.
Dealer by me has a couple sitting on the lot, not the cross country, but the interior is the same so you should be able to go check it out.
Yep… dealer near me is advertising test drives… I’ll probably go when it stops snowing.
Conversely go test it while there’s still snow on the ground to see how it does
Late Brake Show reviewed the standard EX30 a while back. Watch that to get a good idea of interior space.
I have no issues at all with this soft roader in theory. My biggest issue is actually just that they bumped the rim diameter UP when making an “off road” version. Why on earth jump to a 19″ rim for offroad use. Keep the 18s and leave a bit of meat in the side wall.
But the EX30 interior as a general rule is another example of Tesla’s minimalist Tech Hellscape. I like the looks of the outside, no issues with the size of the thing, but that dash and the vehicle user experience would be rage inducing for me.
I’d be willing to at least take it for a long test drive with the interior if it was cheap, but for $45k for the cheapest one according to the website, not a chance.
Take Toyota RAV4 Prime.
If you can find one. But very good answer
It’ll only navigate dangerous Starbucks drive throughs, so the wheels probably don’t matter beyond “looks neat”
Even in that case I’d rather scrape sidewalls than scrape a rim.
Judging by the amount of tire black on the curbs at every drive through I pass by that’s exactly the setting where you would want less rim and more sidewall
Unfortunately I think they had to delay the release of the EX30 for too long. It looked cool and quirky when it was first announced but with mid to high 200s range and prices in the 50s for the AWD variant it just isn’t a competitive product, especially since it doesn’t qualify for any of the federal incentives because it’s Chinese.
Meh. Modern Volvo does very little for me outside of the designs, which I do think are quite good. But I have a hard time getting excited about another $50,000 EV crossover. There are already approximately 7,000 of them on the market and they all do roughly the same thing.
And it’s real small, and not very nice for $50k. I’d rather have a Bolt in most aspects. Once they bring the 2wd version out it will be more tempting, but man I hate the interior and it’s less practical than most of the competition with how small it is.
Materials are cheap as hell too. They’ve gone with the Ford Maverick approach of trying to make cheap plastic and rubber look cool. That works and is fun and quirky in a $30,000 mini truck. It’s a lot less cool and fun in a $50,000 luxury crossover.
I really want to like the EX30, but they really need to bring out the cheap version. When they are $47k, it’s not a very tempting option at all.
Yea I’m over this car. Had a deposit since 2023 and when I got the email to configure last month, surprise!, the single motor version for $35k is magically not an option. It was an interesting car at $35k before incentives. Starting at $45k it’s an absolute joke.
I thought about putting a deposit down but never quite trusted it enough. What color and interior were you going for? I want the yellow with the blue interior. Green interior would be fun too.
I was thinking the blue with the green interior. Volvo sent out resin models of the cars to deposit holders earlier this year and thankfully they sent me a blue one. At least I’ll still have that after my deposit is refunded.
Volvo peaked with the 245 and it’s all been downhill from there. I’d sooner take a 245 off road than this thing.
I’ll say 850, but in the overall scheme of things, we’re not that far apart. I could make a case for V70R, too.
2016 was peak Volvo. Last year of the Turbo-6 in the V60/S60/XC60.
You misspelled “945”.