Volvo Car Australia has just added its most affordable electric vehicle yet – the new EX30 compact crossover, which starts from $59,990 plus on-road costs.
The brand says that it expects the compact new model, which competes with the Hyundai Kona Electric, Kia Niro Electric and Cupra Born, to be its best-selling model in the coming years, with the first 1,500 examples already sold.
As a result, it is in the targets of lease customers, but the company’s local managing director, Stephen Connor, said the brand will aim to meet private customers in the first instance.
“The car will represent probably about 30 percent of our sales,” Mr Connor said of the Chinese-built model. “By the end of this year, once this one goes on sale fully, we will be about 70 per cent—or up to about 70 percent of EV mix, which again is credit to our long-term strategy and our vision,” he said.
“We’ve already sold out the first 1,500 before the cars have even arrived – MY24 is completely sold out,” Mr Connor said.
“We have got the big leasing companies that are interested in these cars, but fortunately for us, our business model isn’t a huge fleet contingent. So we don’t sell in huge volumes of fleet – we do a little bit in terms of the leasing companies, but again, as you can imagine – a brand-new car like that, if they want to buy that car they have to order it in the same way a retail customer would have to.
“So for us, they’re no different to a retail customer. But they all love it, and obviously they were tapping us on the shoulder, saying: ‘Isn’t it great? Can we have some, and can we have some discount?’ Yes, you can have some, but you can’t have any discount, right? That’s not the point of the car,” Mr Connor said.
“We’ve priced the car strategically, the price point at the moment, we think, works – it doesn’t matter whether you’re a leasing company, or you’re a retail customer.”
Mr Connor explained that the business’s plan to be 100 percent electric by 2026 is on track, with the EX90 seven-seat luxury SUV, which replaces the XC90, the next model in line for launch.
“We’re also looking forward to the EX90, which is coming very late this year as well. And we’ll probably be inviting you all to another event, I would imagine, quarter one of next year. So you’ll start to see that car slowly arrive towards the back end of this year.
“In 2019, we told you all that we were going to stop selling diesels in Australia, and we did. We’re pleased to say that globally, they followed us, and I think they stopped selling diesels in 2023,” he said. “In 2022, I told you all that we were going to go fully electric by 2026. And this is the start, obviously, of the new generation of cars coming through. We’re really proud about what’s coming now and also the new car.
“We’re still on track to do that. We’ve got a lot more work to do, as you can imagine. Globally, as a company, we said we’re going to be Climate Neutral by 2040. And that’s across the entire chain. So all of our suppliers, through to delivery, and we’re well on track to deliver that as well,” Mr Connor said.
The EX30 is on sale now, with the single-motor RWD Extended Range Plus base model listing at $59,990 plus on-roads, while the RWD Extended Range Ultra spec is $66,290. The range-topping AWD Twin Motor Performance Ultra grade is $71,290.
All versions have a 69kWh battery pack, with claimed WLTP driving range between 460km and 480km, depending on the variant.
