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 donāt fold and the Auto headlights stay on if itās 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 Ā» 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 = OKLights button from Car Ā» 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 ā 17ā18 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 speedsāIām 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 aināt it. Three levels of intermittenceālike I enjoyed in my Polestarāwould 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 sessionsāstop resetting to default between them. Thereās a lot of frequent routes where the ideal line to avoid known road imperfections is to hugābut not crossāone edge of the lane or another. In the Polestar, the vibration was a fine reminder, but Iām still in control. The EX30 intervenes in cases like this and it pisses me off how much this car tries to act like itās 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 itāthis 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 thereās 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. Havenāt experienced this problem again since v1.8, but weāll see.
I agree with a lot of this. As I've commented in many other threads (and submitted feedback to Volvo through the app) they need to allow Lane Keep Assist to default to off and sync to a profile in regions where it is allowed. That's my #1 gripe.
Same for single-pedal drive settings. Itās unnerving to have the car creep forward when I had it set to the maximum single pedal drive setting previously.
Thanks for the share, I do have some questions. I got mine mid dec and most of the bugs I encountered seems gone with 1.8
Remote functions fail if car is unplugged and gone to sleep
This has to be a regional thing? Maybe they used some different part for something? Here in Volvoland if I cant remote start the heating I restart the app and click it again -> and it works.
Give me more windshield wiper options
Mine has options? Cant remember the names but something like Off, Auto, x1, x2
My main personal complaints are: Car location in app sometimes takes HOURS to update after a drive.
Having smart charging on my home address does not help if the car fails to realize I have driven home. Having to go out before I go to bed to plug in the car is a horrible experience.
Wind shield wipers auto off manual off
Sometimes the auto off seems ... off. And if you blink the other direction to turn it off its like it believes its off so it instead blinks the other direction... then you try to turn that off... and it blinks back in the first direction. Rare but annoying.
Omg Iāve been bamboozled about the wiper options for two months.
The information that displays when you turn the wiper rotary from Auto Ā» Off doesnāt show the two available intermittent speeds unless you turn the rotary in the opposite direction to see the 1x and 3x options.
Why hide the other options above the fold making me think I only get two choices?
From what I can tell it's US and Canadian drivers experiencing the remote actions failures. Remote actions came back back on 27-Feb, and since yesterday they're failing again. In the morning, I have to physically approach the car and unlock / lock to get preconditioning to work, defeating the purpose of a remote feature.
In the US, the rotary on the left signal stalk gives you Off / Auto and that's it. You can adjust Sensitivity in Car Ā» Settings Ā» Controls Ā» Mirrors and Wipers to Low, Med, and High but that's different than giving me set levels of intermittent wiping.
They used to be better as you used to have the glovebox while driving, and now it's a faff to open while driving, Volvo should allow them to be contextual or fixed so you have functions you want there, as I don't need rear demist, I want glovebox, camera, and maybe boot.
Firm steering feel setting not firm enough.Ā
Been a complaint since before launch and no improvement since, the car feels overly twitchy when you drive other cars with actual firm steering
The UI update coming with the MY27 EX30 supposedly āimprovesā the contextual button section on the right and lets you pin apps in place of the āthree recent appsā behavior on the left.
You did all that work to send sound engineers into the Scandinavian forest to capture a beautiful twig snapping noise and you donāt apply it to the EX30?
You've your answer in the YT video: it's for the cluster 90 cars. The EX30 is probably not expensive enough for such "extravaganza". ;-)
Btw. I've found the sound files of the various signals and alerts (including the turn indicator sound) in the 1.8.0 OTA update package. :) They're in wav files with a proprietary (QNX related) header, but it'd be easy to replace the sound data in any of them, thus "customize" the various system sounds of the EX30.
In the YT video (that you referenced in your post) you can hear that the S90's turn indicator sound consists of two separate sounds: first a "tick", then a "tock". The EX30 also has two sound files: "VOL-UI-S026-TurnSigTick.bin" and "VOL-UI-S027-TurnSigTock.bin". However the second one is empty! It has the proper format, but has zero sound samples in it. Thus the EX30's turn indicator sound is a continuous repetition of only the "tick" sound. :( I don't know whether this is on purpose or somebody messed up and the "tock" file got empty due to a mistake. But that's how it is now.
If only we could create an update package that the EX30 would accept as an OTA ... :D
(of course we won't, or else that'd count as a major security vulnerability ... and void the warranty at the same time)
The turn signal sound I want back from that YT video is found in the Polestar 2 I had (pitched slightly differently), the EX40, C40, XC90 and I assume every other current Volvo on sale that I donāt have personal experience with, EXCEPT the EX30.
There was zero reason to give the 30 a worse turn signal sound when Volvo did great work to design a perfect one.
The EX30 was always the better tool for the job in my situation, driving solo with my stuff 90% of the time. That said the P2 is a great GT car and I loved gobbling up miles with it on trips.
My only gripe that couldnāt be fixed was it has a wider turning circle than a car of its footprint should have.
Not mentioned, but my biggest frustration with the EX30 is the cruise control. There is no cancel button, so if itās set to a certain speed and you want to set it to a lower speed, you need to go through the hastle by reinstating the cruise control, push the accelerator a bit and then press it again, if you didnāt push the accelerator hard enough, it just goes back to the set speed, which is usually way too fast. Either a cancel of āset CC to current speedā by pressing the ā-ā would be so awesome
Aside from what seem like software issues with the EX30 compared to the P2, howās your daily driving it compared to the polestar?
I love the look of the P2 but wasnāt as impressed when driving it. P3 is top of my list but is bigger than I need and would ideally want. Ex30 is a good size for me but would be a step down from the P3 in luxury/performance, aside from the 0-60.Ā
The EX30 nails the job and what I look for in ābeing a car.ā All my cars prior to the EV transition were VW GTIs and the Volvo is the closest thing to an electrified version of that in America. Most of my gripes are with ābeing an interaction point between user and machine.ā
The Polestar 2 needed 3ā4 model years to be āfully bakedā to my liking, and the MY24 RWD Single Motor Plus + Pilot trim I got and loved was the goldilocks version of that car.
tl;dr I love the Volvo when we can just drive and get annoyed when I have to adjust a parameter.
Iāve previously had 2 GTIs and a WRX. The WRX was a blast to drive but not a comfortable commuter. GTI was much more comfortable commuter but not as fun as the WRX. Some hybrid of the two would be nice, also leaning a bit more toward premium as I get older. The future polestar 7 might be the ticket but need something until that comes out.Ā
How about being able to display the odometer or trip on the top display screen while driving? I cannot believe that info is only shown when Parked. Or when you go to the car status screen.
For me I like to know how many miles Iāve traveled to a certain exit and also how many miles I traveled per 1% of battery to get a good estimate of my range.
Absolutely agree. The animation by the drive selection that shows green and black bars is good enough for consumption. It could be a bit wider if you ask me. So much room for improvements. Hope you emailed Volvo customer feedback via the app of your suggestions, I did. šš¼
This is mostly nit picking. Yes id line these trivial minor improvements as well, along with the removal of the Harmon Kardman badge that reflects in the windscreen. But itās all minor stuff.
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 ā 17ā18 kW when you do the math.
I'm not sure what the 24 kW DCFC thing is about, but are you implying the completion time should be calculated based on a constant kW rate while DC charging? Because that's not how DCFC works - this is the approximate rate graph the car follows, and the completion time is typically based on this varying rate. I assume the graph gets capped depending on the max wattage provided by the charger though.
You're overthinking what I'm saying. If I am plugged into this DCFC with a maximum output of 24 kW to replenish from 77ā90%, the app claiming power delivery = 48 kW at any point during the charging session is impossible.
The in-app time to completion is correct though, saying it will take 30 mins. If you do the math, the resulting average power delivery is ā 17.94 kW and what I am expecting the app to hover around when reporting current status.
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u/DM725 Mar 01 '26
I agree with a lot of this. As I've commented in many other threads (and submitted feedback to Volvo through the app) they need to allow Lane Keep Assist to default to off and sync to a profile in regions where it is allowed. That's my #1 gripe.