Earlier this month, Volvo announced the upcoming unveiling of the new EX30 electric SUV. Now Volvo has teased that although the EX30 will be a smaller city SUV, it’ll be big on safety.
The safety technologies included in Volvo’s latest electric vehicle will focus on vulnerable road users along with the safety of passengers and of course the driver of the vehicle.
Some of the key features that will be making their way to EX30 include:
- Car door-opening alert
- Extra strengthening of chassis and safety cage with various forms of high-strength steel
- Driver seat far-side airbag
- Advanced driver distraction detection system
- Intersection cross-traffic auto-braking system
A car door-opening alert will allow the driver to get an audio and visual alert before they open the door in case of a cyclist approaches near the door so it doesn’t get opened on the rider. This functionality is expected to work with other vulnerable road users as well.
Structural elements of the Volvo EX30 have also been improved with the use of a high-strength chassis and safety cage. This includes strengthening the safety cage, the A, B and C pillars, as well as the roof of the car.
Moving on to the safety elements within the vehicle, a far-side airbag that’s built into the driver’s seat will be included with the EX30. That’s designed to help reduce head and thorax injuries in the event of a side impact.
Cruise control and other driving assistance features can be helpful on the road with longer trips. These generally require the driver’s hands to be on the wheel.
Sometimes these systems can be tricked and the drivers are distracted or drowsy and hence don’t pay as much attention as needed to stay on the road.
The Volvo EX30 has an advanced driver distraction detection system that includes special sensors that are operating with powerful algorithms which can detect eye and face movements.
The advanced system can monitor the driver as frequently as 13 times per second. The car is able to detect and alert the driver to be more attentive on the road even if the driver may not realise it themself.
Staying on safety on the road, a new intersection cross-traffic auto-braking system is also available on this city electric car.
The system detects situations where another car unexpectedly crosses the path of Volvo in an intersection and automatically brakes to mitigate or prevent the collision altogether.
Volvo’s are known to be some of the safest cars on our roads and with a strong focus on safety innovation, it’s good to see city-centric features starting to be included in smaller city-electric cars.
The new, fully electric Volvo EX30 SUV will debut globally on June 7 with pre-orders opening on the same day for selected markets around the world.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.