Swedish steel takes on South African dust

New Volvo South Africa MD Grant Locke, recently returned from 18 months in Sweden, has been brought into the position to steady the ship and ensure that the brand continues to have a strong local presence.

- WILLEM VAN DE PUTTE

Only a day after his arrival, he launched the new Volvo EX30 Cross Country with at least two more scheduled in the next year or so, including the ES90 electric sedan as well as the electric EX60 SUV.

Volvo is continuing to focus on New Energy Vehicles and insists that fully electric vehicles will very much continue to be the backbone of their offerings, while plugin hybrids and mild hybrids will continue to be in the mix.

Cross Country moniker

That's very clear with the reveal of the fully electric EX30 Cross Country, the first of their electric range to wear the Cross Country moniker.

It’s essentially an adventure pack added to the standard EX30 that allows it to do offroading, although not anything too serious or too deep into the bush (it’s electric, remember), but it does add a bit of swagger to the car.

Exterior

Key to that is its raised ride height thanks to a combination of suspension tweaks and 19-inch five-spoke alloy wheels finished in Matte Graphite with Matte Black aero inserts, making it 13mm higher(190mm) than its road-biased sibling.