Unsolved fire risk in popular EV

Volvo has issued a dire recall notice for one of its popular electric SUVs, but there is no fix in sight.

The brand has put a notice out for thousands of its EX30 compact SUV due to a high-voltage battery defect, which could cause a vehicle fire.

The recall affects 2815 units of the 2024 model year.

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According to the recall notice issued via the Federal Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development Communications, Sport and the Arts, a manufacturing issue can cause the cell modules installed in the battery to overheat at high charge levels, which could lead to vehicle fire.

Without a remedy as of yet, “battery charge level should be kept below 70 per cent,” the notice reads.

This can be done through the charging setting menu on the vehicle display.

“A vehicle fire could increase the risk of injury or death to vehicle occupants, other road users and bystanders, and/or damage to property,” the recall notice said.

Volvo Australia said there have been no reported incidents locally.

Volvo Cars has identified a potential issue with high-voltage battery cells manufactured by a particular supplier on certain model year 2024-2026 EX30 Single Motor Extended Range and Twin Motor Performance cars," a spokesperson said.

"In rare cases, the battery can overheat when charged to a high level, which could in a worst-case scenario lead to a fire starting in the battery. Safety is a top priority for Volvo Cars, and while the number of reported incidents is very small – representing around 0.02% of the cars we have identified as potentially affected – and we have no reports of related personal injuries, we are treating it very seriously. 

"We plan to roll out a recall as soon as possible to fix the cars in question. In the meantime, we are contacting all affected owners to ask them to limit their cars’ maximum charge level to 70%. We will contact them again as soon as a fix is available. Other models are not affected by this notice, and not all variants of EX30 are affected."

Owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by Volvo requesting to schedule an appointment to have the repair work carried out free of charge.

The EX30 has proved a solid seller in the compact SUV space in Australia, following its launch in 2024, starting from $59,990 (before on-road costs).

Volvo launched a cross country version of the EX30 back in September 2025.