The 10 Weirdest Volvo EX30 Interior And Exterior Design Details

The EX30's audio setup would be pretty standard for a living room, but it’s rather unusual for a car. The base model comprises a soundbar with three speakers stashed where the windshield meets the dashboard, along with a subwoofer up front for added oomph. But that’s it — there are no rear drivers. For that, you’ll have to step up to a Harman/Kardon package that adds two more speakers to the front bar, one in each rear door and a rear sub to complement the one behind the dash.

I wish I could tell you how either arrangement sounded, but Volvo wasn’t conducting demos on site despite my begging. There’s a lot of sense to it, though. Modern spatial audio technology can do a lot without physically placing channels around the listener, and of course the benefit to tailoring a system like this for a car is that you always know exactly where your audience will be sitting. Plus, having the bulk of your speakers (or all of them, in the case of the base model) in one place cuts down on wiring and general complexity, further saving cost. It’s a promising idea, but we’ll have to wait until a chance to actually drive the EX30 to find out whether it meets the hype.

The EX30 isn’t an especially large SUV, but rear passenger space isn’t terrible. My knees were just shy of nudging the front passenger seat, and I’m just under six-feet tall and 160 pounds. While there’s plenty of storage space around the cabin — the removal of speakers from most doors has a hand in this — what you won’t find in that second row is a cupholder. Not one!

Instead, Volvo will direct you to a removable bin below the center console. That could work for laying a water bottle down flat, but it’s not going to do you any good in a cup-plus-lid situation. I feel like a fold-out armrest concealed in the center seat could’ve worked well here.

Speaking of that center-console bin, removing it from its typical resting place reveals a cute design etched into the sides, depicting an idyllic Swedish scene of a moose in the forest. Senior Design Manager Patrik Müller-Horn told Jalopnik that the bin needed etching in any case to maintain structural rigidity and properly grip the housing. So the engineers figured if something had to go there, why not make it delightful? See, engineers do have a sense of humor.

The Volvo EX30's taillights look great. As I said in my initial story on the electric SUV, they do a wonderful job of bridging the gap between the original XC90 — which ushered a new era for the brand and represented Volvo’s first SUV — and where the company’s headed. If you look at the bottom portion of the taillamps from a distance, you may see a small lit strip trailing off from the outermost edge of each unit. Upon closer inspection, it’s actually just another Volvo logo, also backlit. Good detail there.

Open up the EX30's liftgate and you’ll see another cute detail etched in the plastic below the rear window, laying out all the pertinent dimensions you need to know if you’re planning on hauling stuff and things. We can see there’s a nice 69 inches from the start of the load floor to the back of the front passenger seat when pushed all the way up and folded as far forward as possible. The aperture for the cargo area also measures 33 inches wide and 22 inches tall.

One of the things you quickly notice about the EX30's interior is that it’s very symmetrical. This is ostensibly done to keep costs down, as it means Volvo needs only to move the steering wheel and pedals when modifying the car for right-hand-drive markets.

This has an interesting knock-on effect if you pay special attention to the passenger airbag control switch, which is mounted on the side of the dashboard and is only visible when the front passenger door is open. On the driver’s side, Volvo covers this spot up not with a blank plastic disc, but one adorned with a chrome rim and the EX30 logo. Expect these to switch places on U.K.-bound examples.

The Volvo EX30 doesn’t have a conventional center console with lockable or closable storage. Instead, the area beneath the armrest is wide open down to the floor and ideal for holding a handbag, with a shallow tray beneath the surface that’s really only fit to keep a phone or small valuables. Pushing in the armrest just below its front reveals two cupholders or a space for your phone and a drink, with optional slide-out circular cutouts over top to really keep those beverages in place. Shove this mass back in and you’re left with a single cubby; push it again and the whole thing tucks back in under the armrest. Clever.

Also notice the two center-mounted window switches above all of this, with the “Rear” capacitive button that directs the switches to control the windows in the back.

Remember two slides ago when I said the EX30 was very symmetrical? That’s a trait also expressed in the central position of the glove box. It’s not where you’d expect to find it; instead, it’s just below the infotainment screen. Annoyingly there’s no physical latch for it, either. This compartment is exclusively opened with a software button, which we’re obviously not too keen on. It’s a worrying trend among many new cars, from this humble EV to the Cadillac Lyriq.

Most of the quirks discussed thus far have pertained to the EX30's interior, but this one concerns the two slender apertures in the front bumper. You can actually see through these into the wheel wells, and that’s because they’re designed to channel air in a deliberate way around the tires to reduce drag and improve range. The EX30 is far from the only car to have “air curtains” like these of course, but they’re nevertheless neat and worth calling attention to.

When the time comes that you want to adjust the side mirrors in your EX30, you don’t flick a separate switch or joystick. Remember: this car’s M.O. is cutting down on that kind of stuff. Instead, you go into the Controls section of the Settings menu in the infotainment system, select the mirror you want to move and then use the capacitive buttons on the steering wheel to shift it side to side or up and down.

Volvo was clearly on a campaign to eliminate complexity all across the EX30, and that’s helped it hit its all-important $35,000 starting price. While some of these decisions are certain to frustrate those who demand physical buttons and controls for literally everything, it’s important to stipulate that the EX30 seems like a well-screwed together product, with the fit and finish you’d expect from a Volvo. Inventive materials comprising recycled plant fibers and textiles — like the flax-derived surfaces in the example seen in this post — look great and feel much better to the touch than typical automotive-grade hard plastic.

One area in which Volvo certainly can’t afford to compromise is with the user experience of the Google-based infotainment system. It absolutely needs to be snappy considering it houses so many critical functions. While the interface was relatively simple to understand and navigate in the demo cars present in Milan, I found it to be somewhat choppy going from menu to menu. These were indeed just pre-production prototypes of course, so hopefully Volvo can smooth out any lingering software issues before deliveries begin in late 2023.