Volvo 164 Reviews

Cars without back windows? Cameras instead of mirrors? Electric cars that sound like petrol ones? Here's our Top 5 things car makers have fixed that weren't broken.

The top five electric SUVs updated for 2022

Reports out of the UK overnight have highlighted numerous software gremlins impacting examples of Volvo’s recently released EX30 EV SUV sold there. But Australian customers can rest easy with the local subsidiary telling CarsGuide vehicles delivered here are not affected.According to Autocar serious software issues have caused a range of faults from media screens going black and steering-wheel buttons not responding to cars failing to charge and emergency braking systems randomly activating.Despite Volvo UK’s commitment to rectify the problems “as swiftly as possible” the Autocar report alleges some owners have handed their cars back for refund.But a Volvo Australia spokesperson has confirmed this market’s status as a “deep water” export destination has helped it side-step the electrical problems.The deep water term relates to EX30 production in China taking around three weeks from build to showroom in Australia while delivery to Europe can be closer to nine weeks.And that flexibility has meant local cars had the latest, updated software installed to side-step any problems before customers took delivery.Speaking of which, the city-sized SUV has proved popular straight out of the gate. In its third month on sale the city-sized SUV recorded over 400 registrations for a year-to-date total (end June) in excess of 1000 units.

If you think electric vehicles might be just a fad, like a Rubik’s Cube or a Livestrong bracelet, or even those Oakley stickers everyone had on their windscreens that said “Thermonuclear Protection”, we have news for you: EVs aren’t going anywhere. They’re going everywhere.

Give the people what they want. It sounds simple enough, as long as you know what people are going to want before they want it.

The rise of luxury SUVs has driven the increasing amount of luxury family cars, whereas previously it was five-seat sedans like the BMW 5 Series or Mercedes-Benz S-Class, nowadays you can choose from the likes of the BMW X7, Mercedes-Benz GLS, Land Rover Defender 130 and more.

This might seem controversial, but really it’s just logical. If the idea of switching to electric vehicles instead of using combustion-engined cars was entirely about reducing the amount of CO2 produced, it stands to reason car companies would design EVs to be as small, and light, as possible, which, at first, they did (witness the Nissan Leaf, which was, for some time, the world’s biggest-selling

Volvo has developed the first battery passport, a way to trace the materials, composition, recycled content, carbon emissions and origin of its batteries. The game-changing blockchain tracing technology has been in the works for over five years in partnership with UK company Circulor. It is important because Volvo is a step ahead of other manufacturers such as Tesla, BYD and Ford, all of which will need to supply battery passports to sell electric cars in Europe from February 2027. Volvo's EX90 electric large SUV will launch the technology and it will steadily rolled out to all of Volvo’s electric cars including EX30, EX40 and future products. Also under the Geely umbrella is Polestar, the electric-only brand already using blockchain technology to trace its materials. Volvo has set a global date of 2030 to go fully electric while Australia will be ahead of the curve, selling EVs exclusively from 2026. Owners will be able to scan a QR code for a simplified version of the passport. Also included is a battery health assessment function that will be crucial for residual values. Regulators get access to more detailed information from the passport. This includes all aspects that supplier Circulor traces, including battery materials from mines, through refining processes, energy mixes being used by suppliers, shipping, to eventually ending up in a car for a total emissions figure.In addition to keeping track of emissions throughout production, blockchain technology will also shed light on which suppliers are being used and if they’ve committed human rights violations. "Car manufacturing has never been about which rock went into which component and which got connected to which car," Circulor CEO Douglas Johnson-Poensgen told Reuters. "It's taken a long time to figure that out," she added. 

Ever since it was flagged earlier this year as an ‘indirect replacement’ for the company’s original EV model, the Polestar 2, by CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, widespread speculation has kicked off over whether the Polestar 7 will even again be a Tesla Model 3-style sedan-esque liftback competitor.

Until recently it appeared certain an unstoppable EV wave was in the process of wiping out combustion-powered vehicles thanks to a combination of environmentally-focused consumer sentiment and government regulation driving carmaker product strategies.