By FREDA LEWIS-STEMPEL, MOTORING REPORTER
Volvo has warned owners of certain versions of its £33,000 EX30 electric SUV not to charge them above 70 per cent due to 'fire risks'.
Drivers who have the Single Motor Extended Range and Twin Motor Performance produced between 2024 and 2026 have been told that charging over the battery over the threshold it could overheat, leading to fire in rare cases.
These EX30s use a 69kWh pack comprising nickel-manganese-cobalt modules.
Battery cells overheating can cause a fire that spreads to the rest of the battery pack, and could potentially cause the rest of the car to ignite - and be difficult to put out.
Volvo has said that the number of reported incidents only represents 'around 0.02 per cent of the cars' it has identified as potentially affected. This equates to seven out of 34,777 EX30s with the specific battery built over the timeframe.
By limiting the charge level to 70 per cent, Volvo says that 'the risk of this rare issue happening is significantly reduced below this level of charge'.
Volvo has told customers that they 'will contact them again as soon as fix is available'.
Volvo has warned owners of the 2024-2026 Single Motor Extended Range and Twin Motor Performance EX30 SUV to not charge their cars above 70% in case of fire risks
A Volvo Cars spokesperson told the Daily Mail and This is Money: 'Volvo Cars has identified a potential issue with high-voltage battery cells manufactured by a particular supplier on certain model year 2024-2026 EX30 Single Motor Extended Range and Twin Motor Performance cars.
'In rare cases, the battery can overheat when charged to a high level, which could in a worst-case scenario lead to a fire starting in the battery.
'Safety is a top priority for Volvo Cars, and while the number of reported incidents is very small – representing around 0.02 per cent of the cars we have identified as potentially affected – and we have no reports of related personal injuries, we are treating it very seriously.
'We plan to roll out a fix for the cars in question as soon as possible. In the meantime, we are contacting all affected owners to ask them to limit their cars’ maximum charge level to 70 per cent. We will contact them again as soon as a fix is available.
'Other models are not affected by this notice, and not all variants of EX30 are affected.'
This means that the entry-level EX30 - the Single Motor, which has a different lithium-iron-phosphate battery - is not affected.
Volvo has said that the number of reported incidents only represents 'around 0.02 per cent of the cars' it has identified as potentially affected
Volvo says it has been in discussion with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency - which oversees car recalls in Britain - after issuing its warning to owners not to charge batteries above 70 per cent.
The DVSA said: 'Currently the investigation is still ongoing with the final service solution being developed.'
EV website Electrifying.com has reported that the battery fire issue was first flagged to EX30 owners during the Christmas period.
Owners told the site that they have been left 'upset' by the lack of communication from Volvo and how the situation has been handled thus far.
The recall notice apparently says that 10,440 cars are affected in the UK and Electrifying reports that Volvo's parent company Geely is suing Chinese battery supplier Sunwonda Electronic - the supplier of the suspected faulty batteries.
However, Sunwonda has hit back and said that the batteries were supplied by one of Geely's own companies.
Just over a year ago, customers who bought Volvo's £100k EX90 SUV were emailed to be told that eight key tech features were missing including top priority safety kit when the first cars were delivered
This is not the first time owners of Volvo electric cars have reported issues in recent months.
In 2024, its EX90 luxury seven-seater SUV was rolled out with unfinished tech.
First deliveries of the £100,000 EV were sent out without basic tech like Apple CarPlay - and drivers weren't able to access these absent features until software updates arrived.
Volvo notified customers who'd pre-ordered the SUV via email that there was a list of features 'that may be delayed when taking delivery of your EX90'.
As well as Apple CarPlay, owners were only able to use their screen in dark theme initially, and bi-directional charging was unavailable.
Most concerning, however, was the absence of safety features that were touted as being delayed including cross-traffic alerts, curve speed assist and - most notably - a fully-working Lidar system.
