Volvo has confirmed the EX30 will be available with two battery sizes plus single- and dual-motor powertrains when it’s launched.
Speaking to journalists about the EX30’s environmental credentials (it has the lowest carbon footprint of any Volvo produced to date), sustainability centre manager Anders Nyth said: “From launch, we will offer it with two battery variants. A smaller variant, 51kWh, which is an LFP [lithium-iron-phosphate] battery, and then we have the NMC or NCM [nickel-cobalt-manganese] variant, which is a 69kWh battery.
“Of course, the driveline impacts the efficiency of the car, so there’s a rear-wheel version and an all-wheel-drive version.
“The rear-wheel-drive, NCM-battery [car] is kind of the long-range version.”
No specifications for Australia have been confirmed for the EX30’s expected launch here in 2024.
The Swedish firm has claimed a maximum range of 480km for the EX30, with that figure likely representing the aforementioned efficiency-focused ‘long-range’ version.
Volvo has also said that the EX30 will be its most environmentally friendly model to date, with a carbon footprint 25% lower than that of the existing C40 Recharge and XC40 Recharge.
This reduction is thanks in part to technical developments including the use of recycled materials, which comprise 17% of the car’s steel and plastics, and 25% of its aluminium.
It has also been designed to be recyclable “designed to be recycled to a high degree” at the end of its life, said Nyth.
Anders Kärrberg, Volvo’s global head of sustainability, added that the firm is also wasting less materials. “The material utilisation degree for body parts stamp parts is up to 57% between 55 and 57%,” Kärrberg said. “That means less scrap when you stamp the bodies and obviously more circular [in the car’s production cycle].”
The firm will also use blockchain technology to verify the provenance of the lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese and graphite used for production.
Nyth explained: “It locks these transactions [records]. You can’t alter one transaction from one place to another without the whole chain knowing it. Therefore you create a closed loop of information which will not be altered.”
The EX30 will sit below the existing XC40 in the firm’s growing line-up of electric SUVs, which is now headed by the EX90.