World’s Best EV Crossover? Volvo EX30 Vs EVERY Rival

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 £35,000 electric crossover you can lay your hands on, including the brand new Volvo EX30. But we're not going to start with a Volvo EX30 or the smart one or Peugeot's E2008. We are going to start with the Kia e-Niro, 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 you pop, you don't have to watch anymore. Right, have they gone? Right, time to have some fun, and we're going to start by getting that Kia out of here. The plastics are cheap, the screens are pain, 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 kilowatt 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 gawky 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 Peugeot is also going to take an early bath, largely because of its odd driving position and bottle top 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 flair 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 ATO3. Its 440 litre boot is almost 100 litres bigger than the DS3s. And remarkably, it doesn't look as daft as the French car. What it reminds me of is a 15 year old Mitsubishi. 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 £37,500. 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 kilowatt hour 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 Peugeot E2008. This should be easy. Three, two, one. And disappeared. Absolutely munched. It's barely off the line. It's a very fast car, this. But it's not a great hot hatch. 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 wholly inadequate stoppers that, um, caught fire. But while we're dealing with a conventional hatchback rather than a crossover, there's a point I want to make. Using the Jeep Compass and Renault Megane, 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 a Volkswagen ID3. Here you've got a 60 kilowatt hour battery, 280 mile 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 X30, 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 naught to 60 in 5.3 seconds. In fact, we timed them all, and even the pipsqueak 150 horsepower Stellantis cars could crack nine 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 intercomp weighing scales, and those Stellantis cars with their small 50 kilowatt hour batteries are much lighter, all weighing within just four kilos of each other at around 1580 kilos. The rest, most of which use 60 kilowatt 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 Hyundai, which claims 1698 kilos, but came in almost 100 kilos more. Heaviest of all, the 1835 kilos smart one. Well, at least it's not two 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 daft toy town toupee on top. It's easy to dismiss the smart, now a joint project between Mercedes and Chinese firm Geely, with its silly screen graphics and puddingy 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 well 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 at under 32 grand. Only it doesn't have much range, just 193 miles, when the lighter Stellantis cars will go 50 miles 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 Kia Niro. It has a more logical cabin layout, better graphics, is just as practical and reliable. And in this bigger battery version has a 319 mile range. I was almost tempted to include the Kona in the final rundown, until I remembered the cabin is as grey as slough. The Kona's just not interesting and engaging enough. 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 kilowatt hour batteries. Although the Volvo, because it weighs 200 kilos more, does 30 miles 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 a thousand pounds 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 Geely platform. That's because Volvo is owned by Geely, the Chinese firm. And Smart is now a partnership between Geely 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 taut. 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. OK, 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 version. With 430-odd horsepower, this thing is likely to be a bit undriveable. This feels like a bit of a sweet 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. I like that. But the Megane 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, it's 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 peck. 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 coo over the quality together. Me? I'd have that EX30. It's a good car.