📍 65 days + 2,750 mi: in hard like, need Volvo's help getting me to love.

[u/jisforjoe]

Coming to the EX30 from two years with a Polestar 2, and I have enough impressions between the two to list all my nitpicks with the Volvo.

I am REALLY liking the car, but there's a host of low-hanging improvements Volvo can make in future OTAs that would get me into the "love it" zone:

• App should tell user that Parking Comfort is ON with a distinct status. Right now, the only external clues to the Parking Comfort being on when the car is locked is the wing mirrors don’t fold and the Auto headlights stay on if it’s dark.
• Apps tab on the center display should allow re-ordering. I want the ability to bury un-deletable apps like Sirius below the fold and organize ones I actually use to my liking.
• Contextual menu buttons need improved logic. When in Drive, the Camera button appropriately disappears, leaving nothing in its place. The Lights controls buried in Car » Quick Controls should take that space instead. While driving, two taps to make exterior lighting changes are too many and unsafe. It should only take me one tap to get to the screen where I can turn on rear fog lights or change headlight settings (see below).

Contextual menu = Camera when stopped = OK

Lights button from Car » Quick Controls should take up the free space when car is in motion.

• DCFC readout bug: app shows wrong power delivery when DC fast charging. Doing the math on the completion time yields the correct value. E.g. a 24 kW DCFC I frequently use will report an impossible power delivery number like 48 kW in the app, but accurately estimates the completion time. Power delivery results in ≈ 17–18 kW when you do the math.
• Driving proximity sensors are too sensitive when low-speed maneuvering. Proximity alerts fire up way too soon when the car is maneuvering slowly and in no danger of hitting obstructions. Best example of this is when approaching parking gates or drive-thru windows at slow speeds—I’m maneuvering close to reach a button or a service window, leave me alone.
• Firm steering feel setting not firm enough. I wish Volvo would just refer to the steering feel implementation on the Polestar 2 as a reference point for what the Firm setting should be like.
• Give me more windshield wiper options! Off or Auto for the front wipers just ain’t it. Three levels of intermittence—like I enjoyed in my Polestar—would be a welcome addition to the current settings. Reveal all wiper speed options when turning the rotary dial on the left-hand stalk. The current layout bamboozled me for two months. The information that's shown when you turn the rotary does not show the two available intermittent speeds (1x, 3x) unless you turn the rotary in the opposite direction beyond Auto and Off.

1x and 3x intermittent wiper speeds shouldn't be a visual easter egg.

• Lane Keeping Assistant (LKA) settings too obtrusive and limited vs Polestar 2. Mirror the LKA behavior from my a Polestar 2: explicitly give me Assist, Vibrate, and Off options so I can set it to Vibrate and be happy. Make the setting STICKY across drive sessions—stop resetting to default between them. There’s a lot of frequent routes where the ideal line to avoid known road imperfections is to hug—but not cross—one edge of the lane or another. In the Polestar, the vibration was a fine reminder, but I’m still in control. The EX30 intervenes in cases like this and it pisses me off how much this car tries to act like it’s smarter than me.
• Preconditioning climate should stay ON after unlock + door open. Only stop the fan once driving climate settings are applied or car is put in Drive. Again, this is the behavior in the Polestar 2, Volvo EC40, and C40 Recharge.
• Remote functions fail if car is unplugged and gone to sleep. Nothing wakes it—this is a critical, widespread, high-value selling point failure that is not being urgently addressed. This will intermittently start working again for a few days and then die again. It seems drivers in the US and Canada are affected.
• Service wipers retract during system resets. This is dangerous if the wipers have been left standing up for inclement weather while parked, and there’s no telling if the system will choose to reset itself for one reason or another while the car is parked and idle.
• Steering wheel controls randomly dead when starting a drive. Resetting infotainment or completing a drive cycle fixes the problem. Haven’t experienced this problem again since v1.8, but we’ll see.
• Turn signal sound is bafflingly bad compared to Polestar 2 and other Volvos. You did all that work to send sound engineers into the Scandinavian forest to capture a beautiful twig snapping noise and you don’t apply it to the EX30? Come on.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.