How I Connected The Dots Between Volvo And Saab In An All-Electric EX30

My original plan upon my arrival in Gothenburg was to venture out on an electric vehicle (EV) roadtrip with the 2025 Volvo EX30, but a few elements I had forgotten to take into consideration ended up thwarting my plans.

First, the jet lag and the six-hour time difference, multiplied by the lack of sleep on the way in, and the fact that late November in Sweden means no more sunlight come 3 pm had me falling like a rock the moment I checked into my hotel room.

My time in Gotheburg was brief; only five days. This included two full days of travel. So, that didn’t give me much time left to visit. Volvo had also filled up my schedule with neat activities, such as hanging out at World of Volvo, an opportunity to test drive some classic models from its heritage collection, as well as a tour of the Torslanda assembly plant where Volvo builds the XC90, XC60, V60 and V90 station wagons. So, while my original mission was to use my first day in the area to drive around through Sweden, and maybe even into Norway to sample Scandinavia’s charging infrastructure, I had to considerably condense these plans.

Volvo loaned me a 2025 EX30 press unit during my time in Gothenburg for me to review, and paid for my hotel. TopSpeed covered flights.

Anyway, I quickly realized two important things while in Sweden. One, the distances there are not what a Canadian like me is used to. For instance, roadtripping to Oslo – which is in an entire different country (Norway) – takes about the same time as it normally takes me to drive from Montreal to Quebec City. Two, after whipping out the ChargeFinder app to find public chargers, I was astonished by Sweden’s plentiful infrastructure. There wasn’t really anything new to report.

The reality is that Sweden has embraced EVs as the future of mobility way before we did (have we even gotten collectively agreed on that one yet?). I therefore decided to drive up to the old Saab facilities instead. And boy did that bring back great memories.

2025 Volvo EX30: The Hotel’s Level 2 Charger Sufficed For Range And Charging

Since Trollhättan, where Saab used to live, is just 46 miles away from downtown Gothenburg – Volvo’s home city – I figured I’d get more than enough charging capability from the level 2 unit the hotel had provided during my stay.

Also, from experience driving a lot of EVs back home in different scenarios, I can tell you that having access to a level 2 charging unit at home base tends to be all you really need to get around. Public fast-charging is mostly handy for very long road trips, which wasn’t the case here.

Speaking of chargers, I was also able to try out Europe’s Type 2 CCS (for Combined Charging System) connector, which essentially has you assembling the charger yourself. Yes, Europe also has similar level 2 chargers as we do in the sense that they’re one solid piece from which you simply grab a pistol hooked up to a large cable and connect it to your car.

But in the Type 2’s case, it took me a while to figure out that I had to take the cable out of the EX30’s trunk, and connect it at both ends, one in the car, the other on a large wallbox unit. The next morning, my two-wheel drive, Euro-spec EX30’s infotainment system said I had 310 km of range left, or about 193 miles. That was way more than I needed.

The EX30 is Volvo’s latest subcompact electric crossover, set to enter the American market only next year due to complications related to tariffs on Chinese-built vehicles. Yes, the EX30 is built in China, but Volvo will soon build it at its Ghent assembly plant, in Belgium, to avoid getting heavily taxed by the U.S. government. Although that could all change again during the new Trump era.

I had the opportunity of driving the EX30 during its world launch last year in Barcelona, and I absolutely loved it for its small packaging, minimalist design and surprisingly punchy performance. The car is also available here in Canada as I write this, which allowed me to drive it a second time in real-world conditions. It’s frankly super fun to drive, since it drives more like like a hot hatchback rather than an SUV.

In the U.S. and Canada, the EX30 only comes with one battery option, a 64-kWh (usable), liquid-cooled lithium-ion unit that propels either the rear wheels or all fours. In both cases, range is rather competitive, providing up to 275 miles in two-wheel drive form (268 hp/253 lb-ft), and up to 265 miles in the dual-motor configuration (422 hp/400 lb-ft).

In the latter spec, the EX30 will sprint to 60 MPH in 3.3 seconds, which is frankly bonkers for a vehicle of this segment. Fast charging on a compatible DC unit is rated at 153 kW, which is on par with what the competition currently sells.

2025 Volvo EX30 Technical Specifications

It’s also a surprisingly spacious little crossover for its size, with sufficient leg and headroom in the rear. The cargo space is also quite generous considering its lilliputian dimensions (14 cu-ft/32 cu-ft total). The big highlight is how Volvo does more with less here, removing basically all items that it considers you don’t need from its cabin in an attempt to reduce the car’s carbon footprint.

There’s no dashboard per se – a bit like a Tesla – except for a smallish, Google-based infotainment tablet in which all the car’s main functions are housed. There are only five actual buttons in the car, two on the center console to operate the windows, with a third haptic feedback button to select the rear windows. That’s honestly rather irritating and never works well. The remaining two window actuators are located in the rear.

The Saab Trollhättan Assembly Plant Is Still All There, But Not For Long

Since I took off in the dark – again – I decided to take the fast way up to Trollhättan and then take my time to explore the Swedish countryside on the way back. My goal was to arrive there at around 8 am, grab all the shots I had to grab, have a peak at the Saab Car museum, and head back to Gothenburg before 11 am when I was scheduled to visit the Torslanda assembly plant.

But then, Sweden ended up being Sweden at this time of the year, which meant that even by 8 am, it was still dark. I had to wait a bit for the sun to rise. The Saab Car museum also didn’t open until 11 am, so I would miss out an opportunity to visit an iconic piece of automotive heritage. That was a serious bummer considering my love for old Saabs, and how it was a car company that had an important role to play during my childhood.

For as long as I can remember, aunt Mimi would come to our family Christmas gatherings in a shiny new Saab. Through the 1980s, 1990s and all the way to Saab’s bankruptcy in 2011, she owned one. I remember two of her 900 turbos from the 80s and 90s, but the one that marked my teenage self the most was her 1997 900 Talladega Edition. That car was something, as it was a black, three-door 900 with a manual transmission and a black leather interior.

If you know your Canadian-market Saabs, you’re probably aware that such a configuration did not exist there. In that market, the three-door 900 manual only came with cloth.

But being a faithful Saab owner for quite some time, and being a woman of great taste who wasn’t afraid to ask to speak to the manager when she didn’t get what she wanted, aunt Mimi somehow made it happen. Saab Canada swapped the 900’s cloth interior for a European market leather trim. I know, wow.

I don’t want to know how much that must have cost back then, but wherever that car is today – if still alive – it’s a unicorn. Post Saab bankruptcy, poor aunt Mimi ended up having to trade in her wonderful 2009 9-3 Turbo convertible for a Toyota Prius V in an attempt to salvage its remaining market value.

That was all spinning through my mind as I peeked through the main doors of the adorable little Saab car museum. There was a GT 750 parked there right by the door, with a 9-3 behind it. The museum itself doesn’t appear to be that big, actually, nestled in what appears to be some form of European-style strip mall. Trollhättan is a calm, peaceful little town that appears to still focus mostly on industrial operations. There are still quite a fair number of Saabs driving around there, which is a pleasing sight.

But Saab isn’t entirely dead. Its aerospace division, where everything started for the company (remember the slick “Born from Jets” ads?), is still nestled deep into Trollhättan’s industrial neighborhood. So are the old Saab car manufacturing facilities, which I had a chance to visit from the outside and take pictures of.

It’s all still there, appearing intact and not really abandoned. It almost felt as though the plant had been shut down for the weekend, actually. But, apparently, all the tooling inside will soon be dismantled and auctioned, so, sadly, Saab cars, the company, is finally parting out after all these years. I don’t think it’ll ever return unless some mysterious investor brings it back to life.

The drive back to Gothenburg in the EX30 was done through the countryside, which ironically looks identical to where I come from in the province of Quebec. The EX30 has some weird quirks and features that sort of remind me of the old Saab days, like a square-shaped steering wheel, headlight adjusters through the infotainment system and a center console storage compartment that retracts to create both more storage and two cupholders.

Of course, Volvo made sure to add a little drawing of a cup to remind you that the cupholder is for cups, similar to an IKEA kitchen set. Yes, thanks Volvo. Saab may be long dead, but quirky Swedish industrial design and engineering is still very much alive.