Get ready for the small EV revolution: a whole bunch of affordable electric cars are on their way

Volvo is the latest car manufacturer to announce it’ll soon be selling a smaller electric vehicle.

Called the EX30, the SUV was teased on 9 May, and will be fully revealed on 7 June. Volvo hasn’t said much for now, other than describing the car as its “new small SUV” and releasing a teaser video under the headline: “We’ve got some small news.”

But while the company hasn’t offered much in the way of detail, we can deduce a few things from its name. Firstly, this will be the second Volvo to carry the EX prefix, which was first used for the upcoming EX90, pictured below, an all-electric replacement to the company’s flagship XC90 SUV.

This second thing we can be sure of is the new car’s general size, given 30 isn’t just smaller than 90, but below 40, which is used by Volvo for its XC40 Recharge, a mid-size electric SUV. So we can say with a fair degree of certainty that the EX30 will be fully electric, with no piston-powered option available, and it’ll be smaller than the XC40.

The size of the EX30 is undeniably a good thing. Not only are small cars better for the environment, owing to being made from fewer raw materials and requiring less energy to start, move and stop. But they are also easier to drive and park in congested cities, have smaller batteries, a lower overall weight, and are usually more entertaining to drive.

And crucially, they are cheaper than their plus-size siblings. Volvo is a premium brand, so we’re not expecting the EX30’s price to begin with a two, but it should be more accessible than the rest of the range.

It will join a growing number of more affordable electric cars – something drivers are crying out for, since the average price of a new car in the UK now stands at a massive £48,000. Other smaller and more affordable electric cars waiting in the wings include the crica-£25,000 production version of the ID.2all concept from Volkswagen and a future EV said to cost from around £22,000 from Skoda, part of the VW group.

Volkswagen has also recently confirmed plans for an even cheaper electric car, dubbed the ID.1, about the size of the current VW Polo, and to cost below £17,000 when it arrives around 2027. And since VW uses a modular electric platform, called the MEB, consumers can expect to see similarly-priced electric cars from sibling brands Skoda, Cupra and Audi in the coming years.

Back to the EX30, and it will be interesting to see how much smaller it is than the XC40 Recharge, and whether it will undercut electric cars like the Tesla Model Y, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Polestar 2 in terms of both size and price.