The Volvo EX60 Feels Like The FUTURE

Well, bonjour. You join me here in Spain

for the official global press drive of

that, the Volvo EX30. The thing is, it's

a fairly sensible-looking car, right?

Look behind me. You see all those car

reviewers? Volvo have sent around 300

car reviewers business class all around

the world for this thing, which means

either this is actually quite a big deal

and there's something amazing about this

car,

or maybe Volvo's hired MC Hammer to

manage their finances. Either way, by

the end of this video, I'm determined to

find out which is true. So, jump on in.

Let's take the EX30 for a drive. No,

we're not, because the steering wheel's

on the other side. What a fritter.

>> [music]

>> And we're off. And you probably notice

that I am on the left-hand side of the

car, the wrong hand side of the car.

Now, shortly I'm going to pull over

somewhere scenic and I'll show you all

about the specs of this car inside and

out, but I want to talk about the model

differences. And being a Volvo, they

have named them confusing names. We

start with the entry-level one, the base

model, that is called the P6. That has

275 kW of power, which is quite a lot of

power for a sensible family car. As for

range, 611 k. So, even the entry-level

one has got quite a useful range on it.

Then you go one level up. Next one,

logically, is after the P6, the P10. I'm

sure that makes sense to someone. The

P10, well, that's got an extra 100 kW of

power, meaning that the 0-100 time is

now under 5 seconds, just. And you think

maybe the P10, it's all-wheel drive, it

would have less range. Mm-mm. They've

upped the battery size. So, now it does

660 k per charge. Now, if you want

something spicier, you can get something

called the P12, which is coming soon.

And that is the same as this, it's

all-wheel drive, but it's 500 kW

[snorts] of power, meaning that 0-100

time in the P12, 3.8 seconds. The Cross

Country, well, it's the P10, but they've

adjusted the suspension a little bit.

It's got the adjustable air suspension.

They've raised it a little bit as well,

a bit more ground clearance, extra body

kits, different wheels. It's a bit more

fun off-road. Now, I don't want to get

too nerdy. We will get to the car very

shortly, but I just want to talk quickly

about the architecture. It's running on

a new Volvo SPA3 architecture as called.

That's basically just means first of

all, it's an 800 volt system. A lot of

electric cars are 400 volts. This is 800

volts, so faster charging. Also, with

the SPA3 platform, that battery is now a

structural member. [music] It makes the

car much more rigid as I'm hoping we're

going to find out we put this into some

corners later on in the video. As for

charging speed, I mentioned 800 volts,

right? It's quick. Supposedly, 10

minutes of rapid charging will get you

340

km in this machine. That's pretty

impressive. There is a lot of stuff that

is I don't want to say

game-changing. I hate that cliche, but

there's a lot of stuff that's really

pushing the [music] envelope in this

fairly sensible looking car, at least on

the outside. But, it's got a lot of tech

underneath it. And let's talk about

tech. And we start with something

different about this car. Ooh, where are

we going?

>> [laughter]

>> What does that say? We're doing a

U-turn.

I want to talk about tech. This is a

very tech-heavy car. And one of the

pieces of resistance is Claude.

Apparently, this has AI built in. And

supposedly, you can turn on features and

things in the car by talking normally to

the car. You don't have to learn

commands. So, let's give it a go.

>> [music]

>> Hey Google, let's talk. What's the best

way to make crispy potatoes?

>> The most common way seems to be to first

partially boil them in salted water.

>> [laughter]

>> Then, you rough up the surfaces by

shaking them around, toss them with oil

or butter, and roast hot in the oven

until golden and crispy.

>> Okay.

>> Making sure they

>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. As for

infotainment, this is a very tech-heavy

car and we are looking at this massive

infotainment system right in front of

us. This controls the whole car and it's

running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip,

which just means it's it's fast. If you

push buttons, you select things, things

pop up pretty quickly. There's not a lot

of lag and that I appreciate in a really

tech-heavy car. All right, we're going

on the motorway in this all-wheel drive

Volvo.

[ __ ] a me.

>> [laughter]

>> Okay, it's got some performance. Sorry.

Yeah, it moves. It moves. As I said, 0

to 100 time in this one is under 5

seconds. I would like to get my hands on

that P12 though, eh? It sounds pretty

Being a tech-heavy car, I want to also

point out that the operating system

running all of this is Android operating

system, which means that it connects to

the Google Play Store. So, this you can

treat it like a giant cell phone. You

can load apps off the Play Store onto

the car itself. It's got Google Maps as

standard, as you'd expect. And when you

put in your destination, it'll tell you

how much charge you're going to have

when you get there. That such a sanity

saver. But, the fact that it's got AI

built in, it's got Google Maps built in,

that you can get this car with up to 8

110 km of range on one charge. That

blows my mind because in my mind, Volvos

always been sensible, dependable,

reliable. It's, you know, not radical.

It's a good [music] family car, but now

this seems to really be pushing the

envelope. You're watching real time a

recalibration of my own image of Volvo.

All right, but let me put a few k's on

this car. I'm going to get into the

countryside. I'll find a nice little

spot to pull over, and then we're going

to do a big walk around, and I'll show

you all the ins and outs of this new

XC60. And this is the car from the

outside. So, I found a nice quiet spot

to go over some of the aspects of design

on this car, and let's be honest,

Volvo's not known for having radical

designed cars, and this is no exception.

It's a very sensible-looking car. It's

very rounded. Do want to have a closer

look at some of the design aspects

though. The grill is missing. There is

the Volvo logo, and we have the Thor's

hammer daytime running lights here.

These are also the indicators. They're

LEDs. The actual headlights are down

here. Now, these are LED matrix

headlights. And that means that they

change the shape of the beam depending

on the corners or oncoming traffic.

It's very interesting, as is this. It's

got an active grill here. One of those

grills that opens and closes depending

on the efficiency needs. The only

question I have is

how long is it going to look this good?

Because

look at that piano black plastic. I

suspect within about 6 months that might

look about as scratched as that

Nickelback CD you used as a coaster back

in 2008. Don't feel bad, we all did it.

Let's take a look at the side view, and

I mean, it's a Volvo. You're not going

to expect something radical and wild. It

looks kind of sensible. However, there's

a few design aspects I just want to

point out quickly starting with the side

mirrors and they may look kind of out of

place because they're a bit bulbous on a

fairly sensible looking car, but they

are frameless which is all kind of cool

as is the windows. The windows on the

car are all frameless as well. Just

looks pretty good.

However, you'll notice that there is no

door handles. Where are the door handles

you might be asking? Well, check this

out. Instead of door handles we now have

these little flaps here where you just

put your hand on the inside

and it presses a little button and the

whole door opens right up. Kind of

effortless.

The rest of the side of the car is well,

let's be honest it's not very exciting,

but the back this is a bit different. It

it's so different to the rest of the

car. I feel like

whoever designed the sides they must

have been communicating with whoever

designed the back by Microsoft Teams

because

I mean it's different but it kind of

works. Let's have a look what we've got

inside if I can find the boot opening

button is always a challenge. All right,

I have to cheat. I have to put my head

down.

There we go.

Electronic tailgate as you'd expect.

What's interesting here though is not

only will this car effortlessly pass the

mafia test. We can do this without

making too many old old man noises. Look

at the room. You could fit two of me in

here which is a horrifying thought. As

for the rear storage, I'm not seen this

before. This is a split hatchway into

storage in the back and look at the room

you got down here.

That is much more than I expected. You

even get a little bin. Hello, it's got

crabs indented in the back. Little crabs

in there. Crabs in a bucket. Virtual

parcel shelf. Look at that.

Heaps of room and [music]

there's more if you want it.

But I know what you're wondering next.

Can you take this car camping? Can you

lie down in the back with a mattress and

[music] go camping?

I'm not so sure. Let's find out.

You know what?

You might actually be able to get away

with this.

Actually, you can.

You can put a mattress in here.

Okay, I'm impressed. You can go camping

in this car. Now, if you need more

storage, don't worry. There is a frunk,

front compartment up the front. I just

don't know what it looks like. So, let's

find out together. Oh, wow. That's

actually quite big.

That's much bigger than I thought. Okay,

I'm impressed. Got a little bit of an

exclusive here. This is Louise and she

is, first of all, from Volvo, from

Sweden, and she's got a lot of inside

knowledge about design aspects. In

particular,

that. Where did the idea come from from

that weird exterior door handle?

>> Uh so, with this car, it's all about

efficiency and progressive

interior and exterior design. And we

have worked to create our new Volvo for

the electrical era. So, here, from

design, we wanted to keep the body side

clean.

>> I can see that. There's no There's

There's Normally, a lot of cars have an

an indent for strengthening.

>> Exactly. So, usually, you have an indent

here.

But, on this car, we have kept the side

clean and uh

uh this is also for efficiency. The car

is all about efficiency.

>> Right.

>> And then we placed the door handle here.

We think it's intuitive, you know, you

know where to find it and open it.

>> Uh

and it works like that. It sits

on the window. And we have frameless

windows.

>> I love the frameless windows. All right,

one thing I really want to point out

though, the interior door handles, cuz

these are weird. I guess Let's both jump

in and Louise is going to show you what

they are. All right, Louise, I want to

ask you about this because you designed

this, didn't you?

>> Yes, I did.

>> How does it feel to see something you

designed go into production on a mass

scale?

>> Oh, it's amazing. It's

It's just so cool.

>> But, where did the idea come from? Cuz

this is This is, you know, let's be

honest, it's a bit weird.

>> Yes, it is.

>> [laughter]

>> So, the idea about this door handle and

this door grab area is that everything

you touch, like this area, is soft

against your body. So, everything you

have close to you is soft. You have all

the tech here and we thought it's cool

to have different areas to grab the

handle in, so it is every person.

>> All right, I have a question for you.

You are the perfect person because I

have one potential complaint.

Where's the glove box?

>> Uh the glove box is in the center and we

created this in the center because it's

>> [music]

>> uh

easy reachable by both if I sit here as

a passenger and if I sit as a driver.

>> By getting rid of the I mean you've

moved the glove box to the center

effectively, but does it really save

that much space by getting rid of it?

>> Yeah, we have created these new

lightweight proportions of the

instrument panel and the full interior.

So, we wanted to create the feeling of

space and the openness in the interior.

And we have carved out this area as much

as we can, created slim proportions, and

a sleek wide interior.

>> This is a four-wheeled Scandinavian

home.

>> Exactly.

>> [laughter]

>> All you need.

>> And we're back and I've had the chance

to put this on the motorway, had a

couple of corners, but not enough. And

I've got to say the road feel is great,

but the big problem is we're on these

delicious EU-funded roads. What this is

going to be like driving around the back

roads of Tokoroa, I don't know, but

right now it feels fantastic. Now this

car will have, depending on the location

it's being sold in, one-pedal driving,

which means I expect in New Zealand

we'll have one-pedal driving. Let's

press the button and see how it is.

It's on low mode, that's pretty good.

High mode, oh, oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

That's fantastic. They've put some

effort into this. That gives me hope for

the rest of the car as well. As for

drivetrains, if you get the P6, that is

rear-wheel drive and we were talking to

the Volvo guy this morning. One of the

reasons they put it rear-wheel drive,

not front-wheel drive, driver

experience. Feels better. When you put

your foot down, all that weight goes to

the back of the car. Oh, that one-pedal

driving is great. Am I going the right

way? Yep. As for the P10, well, it's

all-wheel drive. Same with the P12 and

of course the Cross Country. I mentioned

it's also a really stiff chassis. And

one of the reasons they've done that is

through mega casting. Instead of adding

a lots and lots of little bits during

the construction phase, they just

create one great cast of the frame. Easy

to produce, faster to produce, and it's

stronger. For example, this has adaptive

air suspension, and you can hear all of

my camera gear flying around the corner.

Feels really poised apart [music] from

the camera gear in the back. It feels

secure. It feels good. It feels like an

upmarket car. It really does. Now, let's

be honest, I I drive a lot of cars, and

while I do love all the cars that I

drive, there are some that are better

than others. And this

this feels upmarket. Yes, the car's

handling seemed to be the thing that

stood out for many reviewers at the

press drive with both the

rear-wheel-drive P6 and the

all-wheel-drive P10 feeling balanced,

agile, and confident in the corners. And

this is in part due to a noticeably

strong frame and a very low center of

gravity. But by far the most impressive

thing in my mind is the range per

charge. Anything over 600 Ks per charge

is impressive, but having the P12 do

over 800 Ks per charge, that's more than

500 mi. It's simply staggering. No

matter how you frame it, this Volvo is

cutting-edge. In fact, the only issues I

could come up with after driving both

were the large A-pillars, which made

sharp corners more difficult, the

surprisingly slow electric windows,

those door handles on the inside, which

do take a little adjustment, and the

exterior door buttons, which, while cool

and different, do seem as though they

may not operate if they lose power.

Also, while driving through Barcelona

traffic, every time I saw the door

handles in my peripheral vision, I

thought it was a car or motorbike

alongside me in my blind spot, and I

wasn't alone. Despite those small

issues, everyone on site who'd driven

this car was impressed. And while we

don't yet know the price in New Zealand,

given how high-end this car feels, I'm

expecting a 100-grand-plus price tag.

And in my opinion, it feels like it

deserves it. And there you have it.

That's the guts of this, the Volvo EX30

at the global press launch. And I've

been listening to the other car reviews

to see if what I think is what they

think, and they all say the same thing

that I'm thinking. They're all impressed

with how it feels on the road, its

stability, its road hold, its response

on the throttle, uh the regen braking,

the gadgetry, the tech, the efficiency.

It's it's all

it's all very good. And I think what

we're witnessing right now, what you're

witnessing as the viewer is me

modifying my perception of Volvo in real

time because [music]

in my mind Volvo's always been kind of

sensible, but everything in that car is

cutting edge. It's pretty remarkable.

That is a Volvo XC60 and I must say I'm

not easily bored out. I'm not going to

say this just because they bought me

fancy ear phones and put me in a fancy

hotel. That's that doesn't impress me

whatsoever. The car is what impresses me

and I've got to say I am impressed. If

this stirs you in any way, I'd strongly

recommend trying to drive one because

[music] I suspect you're going to have

the same opinion as all those car

reviewers behind me. You will be

impressed because I am.

>> [music]