World’s Best EV Crossover? Volvo EX30 Vs EVERY Rival
[Applause] Hello first time EV buyer and have we got some cars for You affordable ones at that well as far as these things go what you’re looking at is pretty much every 35 Grand electric crossover you can lay your hands on including the brand new Volvo ex30 but we’re not going to start with a Volvo EX 30 or the smart one or pio’s
E28 we are going to start with the Kia e Nero because this one’s for you person who doesn’t particularly like cars if your only demands are practicality and reliability have this one it’s entirely recommendable that’s it that’s you done off your pop you don’t have to watch
Anymore right if they gone right time to have some fun and we’re going to start by getting that Kier out of here the Plastics are cheap the screens are paid and quite frankly others do it better now we’re going to break these cars into groups and we’re going to start with
These three or more specifically their keys which as you can see are all identical and that’s because underneath these three cars are identical they’re the products of the giant stellantis corporation which means they use the same 50 KW hour battery and the same 150 horsepower motor driving the front
Wheels they also have exactly the same Secret Under the Bonnet no frunk no frunk no frunk but I know what you’re thinking if you took all the electric gubbins out you’d have room for a petrol engine in there well you would you can have any of these with
Petrol instead of electric and on the whole the petrol ones are £10,000 cheaper but I wanted to make this point electric isn’t for everyone right now don’t worry don’t feel guilty if it’s not for you the petrol cars on the whole are lighter they’re nimbler they take way less energy to build and
They’re probably going to be just as cheap to run but look we only need to take one stellantis product through so which one’s it going to be well it’s not going to be the DS because look it’s a really Gorky looking thing and it’s meant to be
A luxury product look at these door handles they’re just flimsy and irritating and inside it’s completely chaotic the perso is also going to take an early bath largely because of its odd driving position and bottl toop steering wheel which also applies to the Jeep but this is the one that’s going through it
Looks the best some of that French chassis flare has rubbed off and well it’s just easier to operate what if you want more space though well here comes China in the shape of the byd ATO 3 its 440 L boot is almost 100 L bigger than the DS3 is and remarkably it doesn’t
Look as Dar as the French car what it reminds me of is a 15-year-old mitab bishy but wait until you get inside where it is completely mad oh look that’s nasty anyway look this is aimed at families it’s going to have kids in and out the back so how irritating is it
Going to be when they start playing tunes on the guitar string door pockets and then we get into the front okay how nasty are these air vents they seem to have been based around like a 1950s jukebox but that’s not cool is it and all these handles and things it’s
Just nasty look the only reason you’d be tempted to buy this is that it’s cheap but this isn’t it’s 372,000 and it’s got the same battery as most of the others it’s got no more power no more speed plus it’s going to cost you more to lease because the
Residual values aren’t great I’m sorry this isn’t going any further some Chinese cars are doing better the standard mg4 hatchback is well under 30 grand which means for the price of one of these crossovers you could have the extended range mg4 with a bigger 77 KW
Battery or you could have one of these this is the mg4 X power Twin motor four-wheel drive 429 horsepower time for a drag race bring on the well anything you like Really ah the persio E28 this should be easy 3 two one and disappeared absolutely munched it’s barely off the line it’s very fast car this but it’s not a great hot hatch you you can’t turn the traction control off and although it’s neat enough around corners it’s hardly very much fun
Seriously half the field handle as well as this and none of them pretends to be sporty look if you want an mg4 and I wouldn’t blame you it’s a good car but have one of the Lesser ones they make much more sense special mention for the fake brake covers shielding the holy inadequate
Stoppers that um caught fire but why while we are dealing with a conventional hatchback rather than a crossover there’s a point I want to make using the Jeep Compass and Renault mean which is this where’s the crossover for crossovers I mean look at these two they’re the same height your eyeline is
In the same position don’t overlook hatchbacks is what I’m saying and this is a good one way better than the Volkswagen ID3 here you’ve got a 60 KW battery 280 M range big boot out the back and it looks quite cool this is going straight through to the drive off
As is this now you need to come and have a look at the ex30 because I don’t know how they have done it for the money you know how the cabins on some of the others are a bit Bland they’re a bit clumsily designed they feel a bit cheap
Well come and have a look at this because it’s a work of art look at these door handles the air vents here the cup holders down there the seats this has got the best designed and best quality cabin here by a country mile now final thing I want to say about
This for now they do a faster twin motor one of these don’t have it this one already has 270 horsepower and we’ve just timed it not to 60 in 5.3 seconds in fact we timed them all and even the pipsqueak 150 horsepower stantis cars could crack 9 seconds to 60
Which means they can’t weigh that much but we all know electric cars weigh more than the moon right to find out we stuck them all on a set of inter comp weighing scales and those stellantis cars with their small 50 KW batteries are much lighter all weighing within Just 4 kilos of each
Other at around 1580 kilos the rest most of which use 60 Kow hour batteries are well over 1700 kilos special mention for the 1712 kilo Kia for coming in 25 kilos under its claimed Mass Most of the others were only around 30 kilos over except naughty naughty the Hundai which
Claims 1698 kilos but came in almost 100 kilos more heaviest of all the 1835 kilo smart 1 well at least it’s not 2 tons but still 1835 kilos makes it the heaviest thing here but you’re not worried about that are you you’re worried about what it looks like without
Darth toy toown toue on top it’s easy to dismiss the smart now a joint project between Mercedes and Chinese firm giley with its silly Screen Graphics and pudding Dynamics but don’t write off the smart just yet it’s got the most rear seat space of any of these cars Airy
Cabin is quite welld designed and user friendly inside and with 272 horsepower it’s got plenty of Poke Plus and this will surprise you it’s got the lowest entry price of any of these cars are under 32 Grand only it doesn’t have much range just 193 Mi when the lightest stantis
Cars will go 50 m further on the same size battery nevertheless I think it’s worth a punt however if range really matters to you remember what I said at the beginning about the Kia being entirely recommendable well the Hyundai Kona is a better K Nero it has a more
Logical cabin layout better graphics is just as practical and reliable and in this bigger battery version has a 319 M range I was almost tempted to include the coner in the final rundown until I remember the cabin is as gray as slow the cona is just not interesting
And engaging enough the these three all have something about them but you’ll notice we have two yellow cars here and that’s not all they have in common both the ex30 and the Avenger are a similar size similar packaging both have 50 KW hour batteries although the Volvo
Because it weighs 200 kilos more does 30 Mi Less on a charge but look at the quality of it if I was to ask you which one of these was the more expensive you would say the Volvo but no it’s ,000 cheaper than the Avenger and as tested
Here it’s actually 4,000 quid cheaper that’s the one for us that’s the one we’re going to go and drive and here’s a fact this car has a twin in this group the smart you know this both are based on a gely platform that’s because Volvo is owned by giley
The Chinese firm and smart is now a partnership between giley and Mercedes so they have very similar underpinnings same batteries same chassis but they’ve done it differently and they feel very different to drive that smart is a bit of a pudding the Volvo well it’s not Tor
Look it’s got a bit of body roll in it it’s not enthusiastic but it feels neat and able if you like and it’s just very smooth to drive and look how quiet it is there’s not too much fidget and fuss I like this it’s the kind of car you’d probably
Like to be seen driving because it Treads lightly it’s not offensive or aggressive but it is quite quick let me just slow down to 30 I’m going to show you how rapid this thing is okay right ready let’s go right 30 40 50 60 this is a quick car that’s more than quick
Enough I don’t think it could cope if it had much more power so again like that mg4 don’t be tempted to have the twin motor verion with 430 odd horsepower this thing is likely to be a bit undrivable this feels like a bit of a sweet [Applause]
Spot right the Renault is a size up on the ex30 but you wouldn’t really know it from being in here it feels just as cramped in the front if not the back I think a lot of that is to do with the fact that you’ve got quite a lot of
Buttons and displays and things and the Volvo is a lot more cleaner and more calming driving environment than this I’ll also say this for it quality isn’t that far behind the Volvo it’s just there’s a lot more fiddle going on here look on this side of the steering wheel
You have got three separate column stalks for the gearbox the wipers and then the stereo controls there’s just a bit too much going on one thing this does have that not many of the others do is paddles to change the regen braking that’s a good touch like that but the
Mean is a more mature car to drive there’s more tension in it it doesn’t roll as much as the Volvo and I like that actually look if I throw it through here it keeps its control quite nicely it’s also got brakes that are way too sensitive but they’re quite powerful
There are other cars here notably that mg4 which do not have the brakes to cope with the power they produce That Old Chestnut about French cars having a bit of handling now it still holds true I mean this is actually is bringing a smile to my face and that’s all you
Can ask for really this is a refined mature nice handling car with a bit of pet I know we haven’t driven the smart but that’s because it’s not worth driving but listen it’s a more cheerful less drab take on the Hyundai and Kia the others though are more engaging to
Drive but listen that’s not really what this test is about is it I’m willing to bet that you are either a young family or a couple if you’re a young family have either the Renault or the smart either of them will do you proud if there’s just two of you have the Volvo
And you can coup over the quality together me I’d have that ex30 it’s a good car
In the market for a compact electric crossover? You’re spoilt for choice right now. While early EVs were often big, expensive SUVs, there’s now a proliferation of (relatively) affordable £35k ones boasting over 250 miles of range.
Newest is the Volvo EX30, the Swedish maker’s smallest electric car to date, promising the lowest lifetime CO2 footprint of any vehicle it has ever made.
But is it the one to buy? To find out, we brought it together with nine other electric SUVs, including the Jeep Avenger, the 2023 European Car of the Year. Top Gear Magazine’s Head of Car Testing, Ollie Marriage, is your referee…
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:03 DS 3 E-Tense, Peugeot 2008 & Jeep Avenger
02:50 BYD Atto 3
04:00 MG4 XPower & Drag Race
06:06 Volvo EX30
06:55 The Stats
08:09 Smart #1
08:57 Hyundai Kona
09:26 Volvo EX30 Drive
11:38 Renault Megane
13:09 Conclusion
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