Volvo EX30’s incredible acceleration was an accident…and other fun details
After revealing the gorgeous little EX30 last week, Volvo gave us some access to the folks involved in crafting the vehicle, which allowed us to glean some details about the EV that everyone is talking about…
Akhil Krishnan, project manager for Volvo, sat down with us in the EX30’s surprisingly spacious but still intimate cabin to discuss the thinking. On the 3.4-second 0-60, he noted:
“The acceleration is actually a byproduct of everything else we’ve done with the EX30. Because it’s a smaller car […] and we’ve worked on taking away superfluous items and weight.”
While aerodynamics doesn’t play a huge role in 0-60 acceleration, it does play a role. Getting the vehicle weight down was probably a bigger factor, however.
Volvo’s goal was to have a premium experience in the RWD version, which means it put a 268-horsepower motor in the rear. In an internal combustion engine vehicle, adding AWD doesn’t necessarily mean adding horsepower. In fact, due to the inefficiencies of piping power from one power plant all over the car, there’s often less total power in an AWD internal combustion engine than its RWD counterpart.
However, adding a small 154-horsepower motor to the front wheels yields a total of 422 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque. With a car this light, it suddenly matches the 3.4 seconds 0-60 of the Kia EV6 GT and some Porsches and Ferraris.
Why didn’t the X/C40 see this kind of power output? I was told that there were a lot of legacy ICE inefficiencies in the design. The EX30 was designed from the beginning to be an electric vehicle.
The whole interview above is worth a listen, and Krishnan talks at length about the interior decisions that the company made to arrive where we are.
After the reveal, I also got some time with Björn Annwall, chief commercial officer & deputy CEO, who was even more emphatic that the speed was an accident and a byproduct of other things. My interview questions went something like this:
Seth: So, you kind of have a problem from a high-level strategy perspective where your fastest car is also your cheapest car.
Bjorn: You would if you were I would say not for me or a BMW, but if you’re a Volvo where no Volvo customer actually buys Volvo for their acceleration or the kind of the noise of the sound of the engine. Volvo has a different value proposition then to get a bit of oomph I think people see as a benefit, but that’s not why they buy the car.
Seth: Polestar would be more of a brand that would be more of a concern, I guess. But it just seems like an interesting situation. Should we expect all Volvos coming forward, electric Volvos, the more expensive ones, to have a similar type of acceleration?
Bjorn: I think acceleration is commoditizing. I think when you go below a certain level – be that 7 seconds or 6 seconds or 5 seconds, whatever – it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s enough. And Volvo should have enough acceleration to be safe and take you where you want, and this happens to have a kind of 3.6-second acceleration. I think we’re going to stop talking about that, because that’s not what Volvo has ever talked about. I think it’s more interesting to see that the 100-to-zero is 58 meters. I think that’s more important, right? I think it’s more important to understand that you can purchase a Volvo online, you can do that in 36 seconds in the UK. I think those things are more interesting.
Seth: With a 3.6-seconds, these days, someone could say, hey, my Volvo is faster than a Ferrari or a Porsche.
Bjorn: They can do that. But that’s never going to be the proposition by Volvo because it’s faster than Ferrari. I think then you have a different problem.
Björn Annwall, Volvo Chief Commercial Officer & Deputy CEO
So Volvo is genuinely definitely not thinking about quickness with this car. That said, you don’t have to look very hard on the sales page to find the 0-60 speed, and most execs’ faces lighted up with a point of pride even though they will flatly deny they intended to make a little speedster.
There was a lot more info to gain, however. On a “premium-ness” of a $35,000 car:
Now this is a premium car, and it needs to continue to be a premium car. They need to continue to be a premium experience. You get that as you buy the car, as you service the car, as you get part of the brand. This is a step into the brand for many consumers. It’s a very good additional car for many consumers.
So we don’t see this as a mass-market car. We see this as an entry of a premium car in this segment. There is no premium car in this segment, not a full electric car. So we are breaking new grounds, and we’re going to continue to play a premium role. You shouldn’t see this as becoming a mass-market.
We’re a premium player now in the tighter format. And the tighter formats also come slightly tighter budget.
Björn Annwall, Volvo Chief Commercial Officer & Deputy CEO
On Volvo using Tesla’s NACS charger (which a week ago Ford/GM had just announced):
I think you’re right that Tesla has the best premium experience for fast charging. And I think our aspiration is to make sure we as soon as possible make a great charging experience for the mobile customers.
You can have it via the Tesla network. You can have it via some of the other networks. But then you have to become better at some of those things from automatic payments and taking away a lot of the hassle around it. And we’re working with that as a high priority. I can’t give you any further details.
[Volvo is] open to anything that makes life easier for all of our customers. Then, in the end, things have to work out, but we’re open to we’re going to be electric company. We need to have a great, convenient charging experience for all the customers. I think we have a large part of the US with existing charging infrastructure, but it could be improved.
Björn Annwall, Volvo Chief Commercial Officer & Deputy CEO
On how Volvo got the price so low:
There’s no silver bullet. There is a lot of things. One thing is we’re starting from a technological platform that Geely has developed that is very well done and where we share some of the investments with other brands, and we also share in the infrastructure in the factory in China where we produce it. So tooling investments are all very efficient done together. So that’s one thing.
The other thing is: as we engineered and designed this car, this Volvo car on that platform, we actually had a very ‘resourcefulness’ and ‘cost-mindedness’ at the start. It’s quite interesting: sustainability and cost efficiency are very much the same things, right? Less material. Think about what material [we] have, less waste, take out complexity. That was really the leading thought.
And there’s no one silver bullet. There’s a lot of things. I think there’s the sound bar – one speaker rather than having four or six separate loudspeakers. That’s a good example. Less material, less complexity, very good experience, nice design.
So a lot of those small things have made it better. And then the fact that they add an LFP battery into the mix, which I think makes total sense. The downside of LFP is slightly lower range, slightly slower fast charging. But for a vehicle like this, which many people used as kind of the more local commute in cities or as a second car, that is not the problem. So all those things combined makes a very premium car but at an affordable price.
During its investor day, a day after the Volvo EX30 launch event, we learned that Volvo intended to hit a 20% margin on the EX30, and it thought it would be one of the best-selling cars in its lineup. From the reactions it’s getting, I tend to agree.
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![Yes, an EV really CAN power your home – if it's one of these [update]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/09/taiga_orca-wx3.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Can an EV really help power your home when the power goes out? It’s one of the biggest FAQs people have about electric cars — but the answer can be a bit confusing. It’s either a yes, with a but – or a no, with an unless. To find out which EVs can offer vehicle-to-home (V2H) tech to keep the lights on or even lower your energy bills, keep on reading.
UPDATE: a new Acura, and one you can ride hard and put away wet.
Modern EVs have big, efficient batteries capable of storing enough energy to power home for days. That can mean backup power during a storm or the ability to use stored energy during expensive peak hours and recharge again when kilowatts are cheap.
That’s all true – but only in theory. Because, while your EV might have a big battery, that doesn’t mean it has the special hardware and software that allow electricity to safely flow back out of the car baked in. Car companies call this vehicle-to-home (V2H) or bi-directional charging, and only a handful of models currently support it. That’s that, “yes, with a but” asterisk.
Yes, an EV can power your home, but it has to be one of these.
Acura RSX (2026)
At RE+ 2025 earlier this month, Honda announced that its upcoming all-Honda–developed Acura RSX will feature bi-directional home charging, previewing a future where every new EV built on Honda’s own global EV platform will support both vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities.
So, if you’re excited about the upcoming RSX or Honda’s 0 electric rides and want to take advantage of V2x tech, you don’t have much longer to wait. No word on pricing.
Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford made early headlines using its F-150 Lightning as a life-saving generator during winter ice storms and hurricanes, so it should come as no surprise that it’s included in this list. The best-selling electric truck in America can send up to 9.6 kW of power from its onboard batteries back to the house. More than enough to keep the lights on and the refrigerator running during an outage.
To make it work, you’ll need to install the Charge Station Pro (formerly called Intelligent Backup Power) home charger, the Home Integration System (HIS), which includes an inverter, a transfer switch, and a small battery to switch the system on, as well Ford’s Charge Station Pro 80A bi-directional charger (which comes free with the Extended Range F-150 Lightning, but costs about $1,300 otherwise).
All-in, you’re looking at about $5,000 in hardware, plus installation, to make it work.
Kia EV9
With up to 300 miles of range and ultra-fast charging, the seven-passenger electric SUV from Kia has been a hot seller. And back in March, the Kia EV9 unlocked yet another new feature: vehicle-to-home charging.
When paired with the Quasar 2 bidirectional charger from Wallbox (and the associated Power Recovery Unit, or PRU), a fully-charged Kia EV9 can power a standard suburban home for three days. Longer, still, if you’re keeping the energy use low. The Wallbox Quasar 2 isn’t cheap, though – pricing starts at $6,440 (again, plus installation). For that price, you the PRU plus a wall-mounted 12 kW L2 charger with 12.8 kW of with discharge power on a split-phase system.
Pretty much all the GM EVs
With the exception of the Chevy Brightdrop, GMC Hummer EV, and the hand-built, ultra-luxe Cadillac CELESTIQ, every Ultium-based GM EV can send battery power back to your home through GM Energy’s Ultium Home System – arguably the most fully integrated EV + battery backup + solar option out there outside of Tesla.
GM Energy says its new 19.2 kW Powershift Charger delivers around 6-7% more juice than a typical 11.5 kW L2 charger, delivering up to 51 miles of range per charge hour. Bi-directional charging requires the Powershift Charger to be paired up with a compatible GM EV and the GM Energy V2H Enablement Kit. The full system retails for $12,699, plus installation, and can be financed through GM Financial.
NOTE: some 2024 models might require a software update to enable V2H functionality, which can be done either at the dealer or through an OTA update.
Taiga Orca WX3
Candian startup Taiga have been offering high-performance electric watercraft for several years now. For 2026, their third-gen offering features automotive-grade fast charging that will allow riders to plug into the same fast charging networks their electric cars and trucks use, getting them back in the water in 30 minutes or less.
That said, this isn’t an article about fast-charging your PWC. Taiga is incorporating bidirectional charging into all its electric watercraft as of 2026, turning the PWC EVs into a mobile energy resources that can recharge equipment at the dock, power hotel loads on larger yachts, or bring power to an off-grid cabin or campsite.
Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck owners may have zero taste, but they have two options when it comes to powering their homes with their trucks. If they already have a Tesla Powerwall, they don’t need anything else. If they don’t, they’ll need to install a Universal Wall Connector charger, a Powershare Gateway, and a Tesla Backup Switch.
That second option will run about $3,500, plus installation.
That rounds off the list of vehicles that ship with V2H software baked in, so if you’re wondering whether or not your EV can be used to power your home, now you know the answer is yes, as long as it’s one of the ones listed here. But you might remember that I answered the initial question by saying it was either a yes, with a but – or a no, with an unless. So if you want to use your car’s battery as a backup, but don’t have one of the EVs listed above, that doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck.
No, with an unless
As some of the earliest and most enthusiastic EV adopters, Tesla fans have also been among the loudest advocates for using the energy stored their cars’ batteries to back up their homes — or even the grid itself. Unfortunately for them, the slow-selling Cybertruck is the only Tesla vehicle that officially supports bi-directional charging. If you’re one of the many Model 3 and Y owners frustrated by those delays, there’s good news: those vehicles are now capable of V2H charging thanks to an “impressive” Powerwall competitor, Sigenergy.
The good news doesn’t stop there, however. The Sigenergy V2X also works with both the popular Kia EV6 and Electrek‘s 2024 EV of the Year, the Volvo EX30 over the DIN70121 protocol, and several VW/Audi/Porsche and Mercedes-Benz EVs over the ISO15118-2 protocol.
Our own Editor-in-Chief, Fred Lambert, recently went on a Sigenergy deep dive with Sylvain Juteau, President of Roulez Electrique, and came away deeply impressed with the system. I’ve included the video, above, and you can read more about the system itself at this link.
And, of course, I look forward to learning about any V2H models or more universal battery backup systems from you, the smartest readers in the blogosphere, in the comments.
Original content from Electrek.
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Environment
Trump is wielding the power of the state to back critical mineral companies. These are the possible next targets
The Trump administration needs to strike multiple deals with U.S. miners to secure the nation’s supply chain against China, said Mark Chalmers, CEO of Energy Fuels, a miner focused on uranium and rare earth minerals.
The Pentagon decision to take an equity stake in MP Materials, the largest U.S. rare earth miner, in July and support the company with a price floor surprised many in the industry, Chalmers told CNBC.
But it was a necessary step that the White House should now follow with more deals to diversify the U.S. supply chain and reduce the risk that would come with backing a single national champion, the CEO said.
“One company doesn’t fix it,” Chalmers said of the MP Materials deal. “You have to have multiple deals to ensure that you don’t just have the company risk, because all companies aren’t going to deliver.”
The White House is “not ruling out other deals with equity stakes or price floors as we did with MP Materials, but that doesn’t mean every initiative we take would be in the shape of the MP deal,” a Trump administration official told CNBC.
Rare earths are key inputs in weapons platforms such as the F-35 warplane as well as consumer products like electric vehicles and smartphones. The U.S. is almost entirely dependent on China, which supplied 70% of rare earth imports in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
China has manipulated the market by suppressing prices to drive Western competition from the market, said Ryan Castilloux, founder of Adamas Intelligence, a critical mineral market research firm. The MP deal demonstrated that the U.S. is willing to break with free market ideals and push back against China by mimicking its model of strategic capitalism when necessary, Castilloux said.
“We’ve seen just how disadvantaged the free market view is versus a long term, industrial policy driven market — and something needed to give,” Castilloux, an expert on critical minerals, told CNBC.
Possible rare earth targets
Energy Fuels’ stock has surged nearly 200% since the MP deal on July 10, as investors speculate that it could be a deal target for the Trump administration. Critical mineral miner NioCorp Developments is also up almost 200%, Ramaco Resources has gained 140%, and USA Rare Earth is up more than 70%.
MP Materials will likely need more heavy rare earths as it develops a second facility to make magnets under the Defense Department deal, Castilloux said. Heavy rare earths are needed to produce magnets that can withstand high temperatures in EV motors and defense industry applications, he said.
Headquartered in Denver, Energy Fuels is the largest uranium miner in the U.S. and is forming a rare earth operation through mines it has acquired around the world. Its operation will produce heavy rare earths, Chalmers said.
Energy Fuels is focused on “providing a product that is attractive to the U.S government” and complements the strengths of MP Materials, the CEO said.
“The government cannot bet on one horse — it just doesn’t make sense,” Chalmers said. “We spend a lot of time in D.C. making sure they understand the merits of our strategy,” he said.
Trump eyes lithium
Other critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and graphite are ripe for federal investment to smooth out volatile price fluctuations that undermine U.S. miners, said Rich Nolan, CEO of the National Mining Association. Those minerals are all used in batteries, among other applications.
The Trump administration has proposed an equity stake in Lithium Americas, as the Canadian company renegotiates the terms of a $2.2 billion loan from the Department of Energy for its Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada. The mine is expected to become one of the largest sources of lithium in North America, with the first phase of the project scheduled to start operations in late 2027.
Lithium Americas stock surged more than 90% this week on news of the potential government stake.
Albemarle CEO Kent Masters told CNBC that something “in the ballpark” of the MP deal could apply to the lithium sector. Albemarle, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of the largest lithium producers in the world.
“What you want to do is move the market such that private industry can invest behind it,” Masters told CNBC in July, pointing to Apple‘s offtake agreement with MP just days after the Defense Department deal.
Miners seek price floors
While it might take a government equity stake to move the market in some cases, the price floor established by the Pentagon in the MP deal is the “critical part” that allows private industry to invest and build out the supply chain, Masters said.
Price support from the federal government “sends a true market signal that these investments are long term, that they are here to stay,” the National Mining Association’s Nolan said.
Under the MP deal, the Pentagon set a price floor of $110 per kilogram for neodymium-praseodymium oxide, or NdPr, a key input in rare-earth magnets. The government pays MP the difference when the market price is below $110 but in turn takes 30% of the upside when the price is above $110.
The price of NdPr surged 40% in the wake of the MP deal, Castilloux said.
“It serves as a blueprint for any market where suppressed pricing is slanting the competitive playing field against the U.S. and its allies,” the analyst said of the price floor. The deal signals that “there is a way to break free of China’s artificially suppressed pricing,” he said.
This month, we’ve been running a sidebar survey about what losing the federal home solar tax credit means for Electrek readers and how it impacts their solar power plans. After receiving nearly two thousand responses, here’s what you told us.
With the 30% federal home solar tax credit set to expire at the end of this year, homeowners everywhere are showing mixed reactions. And, in the case of nearly 30% of our readers, a sense of urgency. Nearly four in ten (38.7%) of our solar survey responders said that they were “deeply concerned” about the credit ending, and moving up plans to install a home solar system before the credit is gone.
That response suggests the industry could see a meaningful surge of demand in the final quarter of the year as households look to lock in tax benefits while they still can.
Another 19.2% said they were aware of the credit, but it wasn’t a major factor in their solar plans one way or the other (if you’re curious, I fall into this second category).
Meanwhile, 16.4% of Electrek survey respondents admitted they had no idea there even was a 30% federal solar credit. That fact, while frustrating, serves to highlight the need for better public awareness around both clean energy incentives, and the potential benefits to adding solar power to your home.
Interesting, but does it matter?
That said, it’s important to consider the source here. Electrek readers tend to be more educated in general than the American public at large to begin with (check out our Partner Program page for some of that demographic data), and you’re certainly more educated and informed about things like EVs, home battery backups, and – of course – solar power.
The general public? The people who don’t read Electrek, don’t follow the cimate tech blogs, and generally have no idea what’s going on in the world of clean energy incentives? Getting rid of a tax credit they don’t even know exists may not move the market one way or the other. And, frankly, I don’t think it will.
What do you guys think? Is the march towards more universal home solar system deployment already too far along to stop, or do you think eliminating the tax incentive will turn off enough people to do the industry in for good? Head to the comments and let us know.
Original content from Electrek, featured image via UCF.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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