Volvo EX30

Volvo courts 'Gen Z' buyers with a compact EV that priorities sustainability via greater digital convergence. But at what cost? ‘Centralisation’ may yet turn out to be the ‘Marmite’ vehicle design concept of 2024. This is the reason that the Volvo EX30 - rolling out to UK customers as of March this year - has so few items of physical switchgear; no instrument binnacle at all; and a large, portrait-orientated multimedia display that therefore has to convey, display and control so many more functions, and so much more information, than seems altogether good for it.So ask yourself, reader: are you a believer of the rationale that, by designing the car’s layout of controls so determinedly around that 12.3in multimedia display, Volvo’s interior designers genuinely thought that could meaningfully cut down on the number of switches, knobs, displays, micro processors and other electrical components needed elsewhere - and, by doing so, make a simpler, lighter and more sustainable car? And is it the kind of process you think Volvo especially should be engaged in? I’m not sure I do. There must be so many bolder things that Gothenburg could have done to make a more ethical small EV, surely, than taking away its instrument pack and mirror adjusters? This approach just so happens to take component cost and manufacturing complexity out of the EX30, which certainly saves Volvo a few quid.But what about ease-of-use, clarity, simple functionality: classic Volvo qualities. Are they adversely affected? Will the legions of ‘Gen Z’ youngsters that the company is courting for the first time really not notice? And isn’t good design supposed to ensure that the more ethical solution can also simply be a better one all-round?Stand by for some answers, as we drive this crucial, different, new-breed Volvo on UK roads for the first time.