Volvo News
I’m on the list — The Volvo EX30 is here, unveiled to the world three weeks ago in Milan, Italy. Orders Reservations are open. So I ordered reserved one… I can back out and get a refund if I get cold feet. (After a deluge of texts and emails from my local Volvo dealer in the two days after I reserved one — you have to choose a dealer — my inbox has been quiet.) The next step is to wait for the options/color choice, which I’m guessing will be later this year.
NACS — Volvo has joined the recent swell of automakers adopting Tesla’s charging port standard. What that means is explained in detail on Car & Driver, but in a nutshell: new 2025 (and onward) Volvos will be equipped with a North American Charging Standard (NACS) port, and be able to use Tesla chargers without a physical adaptor. This opens up a whole lot of charging options.
Volvo is moving cars — Volvo Cars reports global sales of 60,398 cars in May, up 31 per cent compared with the same month last year. That’s very good.
Over-the-Air — CarPlay improvements (map on center driver display) and Waze now available thanks to over-the-air updates sent out in the last four weeks to Volvos capable of this technology. Waze app is now available in all recent Volvos. “Our in-car app library just grew one app larger today as Waze becomes available to all Volvo cars with Google built-in around the globe. Our collaboration also brings the in-car Waze app to drivers in the US and Asia Pacific for the first time.”
The EX30 Buzz
Why am I devoting so much space to this EV? It’s Volvo’s first clean-sheet EV (the XC40 is gasoline or EV), thus as Volvo’s first shot toward its EV future, this car is at the same time revealing (where is Volvo going with EVs?), and it’s interesting from a design point of view. To wit: the choices they made (Google for infotainment), glass roof, and its low price. I don’t mean to beat a dead horse with this pricing point I’ve been making, but $35k is bonkers cheap for a Volvo.
Consider for a moment Ford’s F150 Lightning debuted at $41k in May 2021. Today, the base model will set fire to your wallet to the tune of $61,869. Not apples-to-apples enough? Ok, the 2023 VW 2022 ID.4 Pro will set you back $41,955. We can’t compare the the $38,790 ID.4 Standard because that manages only 208 miles per charge. The ID.4 Pro has a 275-mile estimated range. The EX30 range is 275/265 miles for the single motor/dual motor.
Have EX30 thoughts? Join our MVS Forums EX30 discussion thread.
Bad news for the EX30 buyer
“The EX30 will initially be built in China, which means it won’t qualify for federal tax credits, but it may qualify for state and local credits.” Maybe that’s why Volvo set a low base price on it. State credits can be substantial, but they vary.
How to measure Volvo’s buy-in on EVs?
Like I mentioned in last month’s newsletter: “You have to go down 21 spots in Volvo’s list of press releases to even see mention of a non-EV Volvo in the summaries.” That’s now 33 spots.
Volvo Bits n’ Pieces
- MVS Forums Contributor manovlov graduates from mechanic school, passing his day-long exam. He learned his skills working on his 850. Many congratulations to manovlov!
- MVS member buys ridiculous V70R, plans to De-ridiculous it.
- DonnVa got an Amazon.
- Sometimes Santa leaves you Volvo parts, even in June.
- In this Burnt Valve thread (informative), MVS Contributor mechang graphs the results in this post on page 9, as a downloadable PDF.
- How to say “Thanks” for an MVS Forums post that helps you. Funny? Informative? Helpful? Give it a thanks!
- While this is filed under owners manuals, it’s more of a page of technical ad copy for the 1995 model 850 and 960. It’s really fun to read what the new model year brought to these cars, and what options were available. Like archeological digs, old Volvo material like this continues to bubble up every so often, and I’m all over it. It’s very fun to read about Volvo’s State of the Art almost three decades ago.
AC Fixes
Repost from last month:
Summer is almost here, so AC fixes are at the top of many owners’ list. Here’s a great place to start: Volvo AC Problems & Fixes. It’s got explanations of AC components, common AC problems, and a list of the most popular AC forum questions/answers.
The Final Word(s)
Join the forum! This newsletter sponsored by FCP Euro! Big thanks to FCP for supporting MVS for many years. Have a comment or suggestion? Contact me!
