Owners of Single Motor Extended Range and Twin Motor Performance versions of the Volvo EX30 have been instructed not to leave their cars unattended while charging indoors or in covered areas, due to a battery fire risk.
Volvo recently identified an issue with battery cells overheating in the long-range versions of the EV, which use a 69kWh pack comprising nickel-managanese-cobalt modules.
Cells that overheat can cause a fire that spreads to the rest of the pack, potentially igniting the rest of the car.
The new advice comes from discussions between Volvo and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), after the brand advised owners of these EX30s not to charge to more than 70% to mitigate the risk of fire.
A DVSA notice said: "Currently the investigation is still ongoing with the final service solution being developed."
Owners have been advised to limit the maximum charge level of their cars' batteries to 70% because, Volvo told Autocar, “the risk of this rare issue happening is significantly reduced below this level of charge”.
A charge limit can be applied through the charge settings menu in the EX30’s touchscreen infotainment system.
If cells overheat, a warning is displayed on the touchscreen stating: “Danger! Battery overheating. Stop safely now and exit car.”
In a statement sent to Autocar, Volvo said the number of such incidents reported so far amounts to 0.02% of all the 33,777 EX30s with that battery built over that timeframe – equating to seven cars.
The company added that there have been no reports of personal injuries related to the fault and that it plans to bring in the affected cars for remedial work.
“We plan to roll out a recall as soon as possible to fix the cars in question,” Volvo said. “In the meantime, we are contacting all affected owners to ask them to limit their cars’ maximum charge level to 70%. 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.”
The fault doesn't affect the entry-level version of the EX30, the Single Motor, which employs a different battery entirely – a 49kWh pack using the lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Hi Charlie, interesting article. I bought my EX30 Ultra Twin Motor in June 2025 after having a Tesla Model 3 for 3.5 years.
My battery has never charged above 224 miles when set to 100% even in the summer months. In fact on the day that I picked the car up the salesman told me that it was fully charged and on looking at the range it stated 201 miles (WLTP 280). This was 10th June.
I told the salesman that this was wrong and he said that the battery would calibrate over time. It has never got near the WLTP and I'm in dispute with Volvo and my finance company, Volvo Finance.
Reading your article, I'm now thinking that Volvo are deliberately throttling down the Ultra's battery pack using over the air software and not telling customers! This is chilling as I charge my car in the garage, overnight to get the benefit of cheap rates and have never known of this risk!
What do you think? Are Volvo knowingly and deliberately throttling the charge to avoid fires??
It is my understanding the 0.02% figure refers to the manufacturer battery cell failure rate not the % of cars on recall that may be faulty. A 64kWh battery in an EX30 has 294 cells, I can’t find a figure for the cell count in the 69kWh battery, lets assume it’s the same, 0.02% = 1 in 5000 cells, ~ 1 in 17 batteries could have a faulty cell, ~ 600 cars in the UK. That’s a lot more than 7. I got my data from this article. https://carnewschina.com/2026/01/14/sunwoda-chairman-responds-to-volvo-recall-battery-packs-not-supplied-by-sunwoda/ Could someone at Autocar get clairification on this as I hope I am wrong.
I'm surprised the EU didn't mandate removable battery packs, NIO style, to ensure battery repairs were economically viable.
I'm curious how you would replace cells on a cell-to-pack design - if have thought it was nigh on impossible?