2024 Volvo EX30 to be revealed on June 15

Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan has confirmed a mid-June reveal date for the 2024 Volvo EX30 – an all-new compact electric SUV intended to broaden Volvo’s appeal to a younger customer demographic.

Speaking to carsales in Melbourne last week, Volvo’s global chief said the Swedish brand’s previously-teased “smaller SUV” will debut on “June the 15th or something this year” before both it and the big new Volvo EX90 flagship SUV enters production by the end of the year.

“The new smaller one [SUV]… let’s just pause on that for a second because I think that’s really important,” he said.

“The age demographic that we have at Volvo is a lot older than we would like; we’d like to get some more younger people into the brand.

“That [EX30] will be a really nice price point I think for an entry point – very safe, decent range, good size still but smaller than the [XC]40.

“We can talk to completely different demographics, for the first time probably, and that younger demographic will probably be the ones who shop more online.”

Rowan said the implementation of a subscription-based ownership experience should further reduce the age of the average Volvo buyer, based on preliminary findings in Europe.

He also said the EX30 would more than likely appeal to older folk looking to downsize their vehicles, especially if they “don’t have a lot of mileage” to cover or have a home EV charger.

Shortening driving distances, slowly improving private and public EV charging infrastructure and Volvo’s new-generation model onslaught prompted Rowan to indicate that urban buyers are the priority for the brand as it heads towards an all-electric future in Australia by 2026 – four years before Volvo goes EV-only globally.

“The thirst for electrification [in Australia] is higher than I had imagined, which is good, and that’s not to say there’s no infrastructure problems and we still have a big demand for ICE engines or MHEVs, PHEVs or whatever,” he said.

“But there’s a nucleus here that’s generating itself into something that I think is becoming quite profound, and it’s back to that inflation point.

“By 2025 I think we’ll be in really good shape here – we’ll have another two or three new cars for the market in nice formats that cover the range, and infrastructure will be even better by then.

“Australia’s interesting because you’ve basically got Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane; if you can be successful in those five cities, you can be pretty much successful in Australia.”

Volvo has made a point of not establishing global EV infrastructure networks as a core business strategy, instead leaving it to governments and private equity firms to invest in and reap the rewards from EV chargers while it focuses on developing battery technology.

“As soon as you put the infrastructure in, range is no longer a problem,” Rowan said.

“So now what we’re looking at is that you don’t want to be putting in 100kWh batteries in a lot of cars, you want to be putting in a 50, a 30kWh.

“As long as you’re comfortable enough that you can charge at home or at the shop and there’s decent infrastructure, why would you put in more cost and more weight?”

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