Sad news today for those awaiting Volvo's new EX30. The electric SUV is coming to market with attractive pricing (announced at around $36,000 in the U.S. and $53,000 in Canada). But the Swedish automaker has announced that it’s delaying its arrival in U.S. by a year. Instead of hitting the market here before the end of this year, the EX30 won’t surface until sometime in 2025.
We contacted Volvo Canada to find out whether the decision announced south of the border applies here. The company told us that Canada is not affected.
At the heart of the decision for the U.S. is the fact that the model is currently built in China. The U.S. recently announced a dramatic increase in tariffs on large EVs from China, which would mean the pricing of the EX30 would have to jump. Meanwhile, the Canadian government announced this week a 30-day consultation to study the possibility of increasing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. If that happens, we could see a similar postponement here.
The language used by Volvo surrounding its decision to postpone remains cautious. Company spokesperson Russell Datz explains that the postponement is due to "changes in the global automotive picture" and increased production at the Ghent plant in Belgium.
The company hopes to announce soon when in 2025 the vehicle will arrive.
Volvo began accepting pre-orders for its EX30 last year. Datz explained that Volvo would be offering several options to customers who had already pre-ordered the vehicle, allowing them to get behind the wheel of another Volvo product while waiting for their EX30 to arrive.
"We remain committed to introducing the EX30 in the U.S. and are working hard to get it into customers' hands. It remains a cornerstone of Volvo's ongoing strategic transformation and reflects our ambition to build vehicles where we sell them, as much as possible." Currently, the EX30 is sold in European markets.
In a conference call with dealers, Volvo executives suggested that the move of assembly to Belgium, away from China, was due to the geopolitical situation.
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