Volvo EX30 has lowest carbon footprint of any EV from the brand yet

• The recently released Volvo EX30 has gained the lowest life cycle assessment (LCA) of any electric car released by Volvo yet.
• The LCA takes into account greenhouse gas emissions from the point of extracting raw materials to production, to the end of an average EX30’s life.
• It also highlights how much greener wind energy can be for running an EV, compared to the conventional energy mix, with Volvo really pushing green manufacturing.

How the EX30 earned the lowest LCA of any Volvo car

Volvo announced the statistics this week, with the EX30 having a total carbon footprint of 23 tonnes after 200,000km (124,000 miles) of travel. That’s 60% lower than an equivalent petrol-powered Volvo XC40.

Like some of Volvo’s previous fully-electric models, the EX30 isn’t available with real leather. In addition, the EX30 uses the highest proportion of recycled materials of any Volvo car so far – 25% of its aluminium components, 20% of its steel, and 17% of its plastics, to be precise. Volvo plans to reduce the carbon footprint of future EX30s produced even further. By 2025, model variants with the entry model LFP and higher range NMC battery packs will have reduced production emissions of 20% and 46% respectively. 

- Advertisement -

As the EV transition continues, and all new cars eventually have zero tailpipe emissions, manufacturers will need to find new ways of showing environmentally-friendly credentials. Volvo hopes that making EV LCAs public will help consumers make “informed decisions” when choosing their next car, so expect to see more EV manufacturers making these figures public.

Head of climate action at Volvo Cars, Jonas Otterheim, commented:

“Transitioning to electric cars is key to limiting climate change, but increased transparency about its challenges is needed to reduce their emissions even further. By studying the EX30’s carbon footprint and identifying its primary materials and processes, we aim to provide valuable insights that can help guide decisions in our company towards becoming more sustainable, as well as amongst the wider industry.”