If you’ve been waiting for a reasonably priced, reasonably practical, urbane, upscale EV for downright sensible money, you might be waiting a good while longer than anticipated. According to an email sent to customers, the nifty, all-electric Volvo EX30 won’t make it to America until 2025, and that largely seems to be due to a trade war with China.
At first, the Volvo EX30 looked like exactly the sort of great leap forward the American EV market needed. Here was a premium crossover with an expected range of 275 miles and an MSRP of $34,950 before fees and incentives. It was going to be a knockout value and arrive in the summer of 2024, but Volvo was going to rely on Chinese manufacturing to make it happen.
See, Volvo Cars is owned by Chinese automaker Geely, so it only makes sense to build the EX30 in China, seeing as it shares a platform with the Zeekr X. However, tensions around trade relations are high, and the White House announced last month that it would be slapping a 100 percent tariff rate on electric vehicles from China, up from 25 percent. In addition, the tariff rate on lithium-ion batteries sourced from China has risen from 7.5 percent to 25 percent.
Obviously, quadrupling vehicle tariffs isn’t good for a car company’s bottom line, and the U.S.A isn’t the only jurisdiction taking action against cheap Chinese EVs to prop up local domestically manufactured vehicle sales. The European Union is also currently in talks with China over raising tariffs on imported EVs, and these actions appear to have sent Volvo back to the war room.
While the firm already planned on opening up an EX30 assembly line at its Ghent plant in Belgium, it won’t be online until 2025, and that seems to have left Volvo in a bit of a pickle. A 100 percent tariff rate would make it unfeasible to sell Chinese-built EX30s for anything close to the promised $34,950 MSRP, so Volvo is reportedly delaying the U.S. introduction of the model by six months or more due to “changes in the global automotive landscape.” According to a customer email shared on Twitter by Kyle Conner, Volvo claims that American EX30 arrival “will most likely be between early and late 2025.” That’s a big window, and there’s no word on how pricing for those Belgian-made cars might turn out.
My Volvo EX30 reservation has been delayed.
Waiting for European production units…. They’re not shipping the China built ones. pic.twitter.com/hYeYKGSTfC
— Kyle Conner (@itskyleconner) June 26, 2024
It’s also worth noting that even if the promised MSRP can be maintained, the EX30 launched in a very different competitive landscape than we have today. A new rear-wheel-drive trim of the Tesla Model Y carries an MSRP of $44,990 and qualifies for the full $7,500 in IRA tax rebates, leading to a net price of $37,490 for a much larger car than the EX30. The updated base-model Tesla Model 3 has an MSRP of $38,990, although it doesn’t qualify for any rebates, and the Chevrolet Equinox EV 2LT carries an MSRP of $41,900 and qualifies for $7,500 in federal tax credits for a net price of $34,400. Suddenly, the EX30 doesn’t look like as good of a deal as it once did.
Another potential loser in the Chinese EV tariff kerfuffle is Polestar. With South Carolinian production of the Polestar 3 crossover not online yet, the volume-seller Polestar 2 being exclusively built in China, and the Polestar 4’s second plant being in U.S. incentive-unfriendly Korea, the brand’s likely in for at least a temporary interruption in U.S. sales volume. Oh, and since Lotus was also acquired by Geely, its future business strategy — at least in America — looks like it could be going up in smoke. Will people be willing to pay exotic car money for an electric Lotus SUV built in China? I guess we’ll have to see.
For now, it’s a shame to see the Volvo EX30 caught in the crossfire of global politics, especially considering my colleagues who’ve driven it have largely enjoyed it, but that’s the way it goes when rolling the dice in a tense world. So, let’s wait until 2025 rolls around and give this another go, shall we?
(Photo credits: Volvo, Polestar)
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I am more “concerned” from Polestar since their current lineup in the US is just one car that was released back in 2020 and they just announced the 2025 version with a minor tweak. I know there are more coming but what is going to happen between today and next year? Have they released some news press about the tariffs? I don’t know when those new tariffs apply.
To me, the electric car market is everything other than Tesla. He’s that terrible and their cars seem built to last like midrange, disposable mobile phones. I really dislike this particular Volvo EV though. No dash? That’s Tesla level stupidity.
American car enthusiasts getting boned on imported cars has been going on my entire life. All to protect our domestic industries which already sold us out decades ago.
Most of the car buying public doesn’t care about Elon, and I’m among them. He’s irrelevant to the purchase in most cases.
Re: Tesla cars being built to last, I guess it depends on the definition. I had a 2022 Model 3 rental with 97,000 miles from Hertz last month. The steering wheel pleather was peeling off, which I’ve never seen happen in any vehicle less than 20 years old, so the interior quality isn’t great. But the software is very good (worlds better than the Silverado EV rental I just had) and the battery capacity was at 93.7% of new after nearly 100k miles, which impressed me. The cars aren’t perfect, but I’d bet many of them will still be around with 200k miles or more on them in a few years.
This comes as no surprise. Big three campaign contributions are more important to the American government than consumer needs or the environment. Plus, it’s an election year and racism against China (or anyone really that isn’t stupid and white) always brings out the moron voters.
It would be nice if it had a display directly in front of the driver when it eventually arrives.
With the EX30 delay, they may run into the launch of the de-contented Model 3/Y that Tesla has hinted at.
My guess is that a 200 mile range battery, RWD only and lower powered induction motor could probably get a 3/Y into the sub $30k price range after tax credits.
Even when Tesla has fully announced a product (as opposed to hinting at it), that product is multiple years away. I’d be pleasantly shocked if Tesla started selling a low-cost EV anytime soon. The existing 3/Y is as close as we get.
Good
I’m not in a rush for a new car and I’m not hurting for $500 so I will probably continue to hold my reservation. I for one am not mad about the prospect of getting a Belgian made car vs Chinese. I seriously doubt the $35,000 MSRP will survive this though.
Yeah these people lucked out, they get the European version for a made in China price.
I’m suffering from “Chicken Tax” deja vu.
Maybe they can pull a Ford (a la Transit connect) and ship the vehicle from China to the US 99% complete and then add a seat or something.
This is why battery packs should not be structural – you could ship a rolling chassis and make the batteries from wherever the government will let you.
Then once it’s off the boat you slot in a juice pack and voila – a US-assembled electric car. Hell, you could even ship it with a 2-stroke lawnmower engine so that it is considered a gas car if that’ll get you round the tariffs!
Thomas – I remember seeing something when the EX30 was first announced that Volvo was able to reduce tariffs because they export from the US as well. Is that something that’s not possible with the increased tariffs?
The original plan was to use credits earned from exporting more expensive EX90s made in the South Carolina I think to offset the tariffs on higher volume of lower priced EX30s. The EX90 plant still isn’t running as far as I know and the math probably doesn’t work out with these way higher tariffs. They’d probably have to export a shit ton mroe EX90s to make it work.
It’s theoretically possible on a limited volume of vehicles, but given how it usually takes months to ramp up a new assembly line (EX90), it’s unlikely a short-term equilibrium will be reached with EX30 demand.
Ah ok – it looks like they only make the S60 at that plant currently. Some of that is probably for domestic sales and even if anything is exported, it wouldn’t be enough.