Volvo EX30 Wins CleanTechnica Car of the Year in Europe

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It’s time to announce the winners of 2024 CleanTechnica Automobile of the Yr voting. After developing with four finalists for 2024 CleanTechnica Automobile of the Yr in Europe, we opened up voting to readers to decide on the winner. Listed here are the outcomes:

Volvo EX30 — 43%
Volkswagen ID.7 — 25%
Seal WORLD — 18%
Kia EV9 — 14%

So, the clear winner is the Volvo EX30! Congratulations to Volvo.

The EX30 was the 3rd best selling electric vehicle in Europe in January–November 2024, solely behind the Tesla Mannequin Y and Mannequin 3, earlier CleanTechnica Automobile of the Yr winners of their debut seasons. In November, the Skoda Enyaq and Volkswagen ID.4 had been additionally larger than the EX30, whereas proper behind the EX30 was the Volkswagen ID.7 in sixth place. As you’ll be able to see, the ID.7 got here in second within the CleanTechnica Automobile of the Yr voting in Europe. That mentioned, it wasn’t shut, because the #2 ID.7 and #3 BYD Seal mixed had the identical vote share because the EX30.

Volvo EX30 interior lighting — Volvo EX30 Plus inside illumination.

The Volvo EX30 comes with as much as 296 miles (476 km) of rated vary on a full cost, 28-minute quick charging from 10–80%, and acceleration to 62 mph in 3.6 seconds in probably the most highly effective package deal. Nevertheless, the bottom vary, for a automobile that begins at £32,850 within the UK, is 209 miles. You have got three major choices:

A funds choice, the EX30 Corewhich presents the decrease finish of what’s thought of sufficient vary for regular use (proper round how a lot vary my 2019 Tesla Mannequin 3 has, which I’m very proud of). This begins on the base worth of £32,850 and has a single motor (RWD) by default.
The EX30 Plus for barely extra, £34,400, will get you just a few additional options (atmosphere lighting themes, energy liftgate, inside illumination, and heated entrance seats and steering wheel).
The EX30 Extremely is definitely nonetheless a single-motor choice by default, however it comes with prolonged vary (295 miles/475 km) by default as properly. It additionally features a panoramic roof, Park Pilot Help, and a 360° digicam with 3D view.

You possibly can add extra vary to the primary two trims, for a worth — £4,200 on the EX30 Core or £4,700 on the EX30 Plus. You possibly can add a second motor for extra efficiency and AWD on the second two trims (an additional £7,200 on the EX30 Plus and an additional £2,500 on the EX30 Extremely). One good factor is totally different paint colours or inside colours don’t price additional — you get your full selection of shade and design with out having to pay extra.

Naturally, all of these costs will differ a bit from nation to nation.

Total, with the EX30, you’re getting a really succesful, properly designed, elegant, trendy automobile, however one which doesn’t go overboard and thus comes at a somewhat reasonably priced worth. In fact, you get the extremely regarded Volvo badge and a good 5-star safety rating from Euro NCAP.

For extra perception into the automobile, you’ll be able to learn our initial review of the Volvo EX30 in Barcelona, Spain, from late 2023or you’ll be able to learn this owner review from Australia. When summarizing the EX30, CleanTechnica‘s Kyle Area initially wrote: “The Volvo EX30 takes Volvo’s legacy of building some of the safest cars in the world, electrifies it, and wraps it all up in Volvo’s smallest SUV package ever. At the same time, the EX30 is the fastest SUV Volvo has ever built with a staggering 0 to 60 time of 3.4 seconds in the dual motor performance build.” Right here’s a bit of extra from Kyle’s evaluate:

“With all that energy being utilized to the wheels, you’d anticipate the Volvo EX30 be ripping tires aside, breaking traction at each alternative, however that simply wasn’t the case. Alongside the check drive, we abused the automobile each on straightaways and across the tight mountain curves of the Barcelona shoreline. On-road and off into the rocky grime roads weaving by means of Spain’s wine nation. Irrespective of how tight the flip, how a lot we stomped on the accelerator or pounded on the brakes to clean velocity, we weren’t capable of break traction in regular driving.

“Primarily based on that, we assumed the car had some masterful implementation of digital torque vectoring that leveraged the responsiveness of its electrical drivetrain together with millisecond-level computations to maximise traction. We had been unsuitable.

“After a protracted day of driving, I talked to Egbert Bakker, Volvo’s head of auto dynamics, who smiled and shared that the EX30 didn’t have a torque vectoring system. There may be zero front-to-back throttling of energy from the entrance to rear motor or side-to-side with any digital differential applied sciences. As an alternative, Volvo does because it has at all times carried out, utilizing the brakes at every nook of the car to successfully modify the quantity of energy being utilized if traction comes into query.

“This rather standard digital traction control system is complemented by a modern multi-link suspension system. At the rear of the vehicle, the EX30 features a 5-link suspension system with four links being stamped and the fifth being a double wishbone cast suspension link where the suspension has to dip under the body. Up front, a more traditional lower control arm keeps things supported from the bottom with a beefy coilover system damping all of the bumps and bruises that the road would otherwise apply to your rear end.”

The optimistic first impressions left on Kyle clearly weren’t a blip, and weren’t too influenced by the attractive Barcelona surroundings. The Volvo EX30 is a perfectly put collectively car and has been holding its personal — or really rather more — on the patron market since its arrival, significantly in Europe. Its superior tech mixed with delicate however elegant design makes it the proper buy for a lot of consumers. For sure, the EX30 was a deserving winner of our 2024 CleanTechnica Automobile of the Yr—Europe award.

Keep tuned for the US winner.