New Baby Volvo EX30 EV SUV Patent Photos Leak Early

Just how small is the EX30, Volvo's soon-to-be smallest SUV? The teaser video Volvo sent us (check it out above) shows it being dwarfed by a looming hand. If this release came five weeks ago, we'd assume it was Volvo's April Fool's Day joke involving a 1:43-scale mash-up of an XC40 Recharge electric SUV and an old C30 hatchback. But it's May 9, so we're going to assume that the hand is a metaphor and this new electric SUV from Volvo is the real thing. Update: It's clear now it's real, as the patent images for the EX30 have leaked online the same day the teaser dropped.

What do we know? Not much: The video was accompanied by a two-sentence press release, telling us the name of Volvo's new electric SUV (which follows the nomenclature of the upcoming seven-seat 2024 Volvo EX90) and that the EX30 will be both revealed and available for reservation to U.S. buyers on the morning of Wednesday, June 7. From the text of the accompanying email, we know this will be Volvo's smallest-ever SUV—not merely its smallest electric SUV, mind you, but its smallest SUV, period. Check out the gallery of patent images, originally posted to cochespias online, below.

That statement, the 30 nomenclature, and the teaser video really did have us thinking of the C30. For those unfamiliar, the C30 was a lovely little two-door coupe that Volvo sold from 2008 until 2013. Though it was short on back seat and cargo space, it was good fun to drive; we thought of it as Sweden's answer to the Volkswagen GTI. For some reason (perhaps a lack of advertising?) it never really caught on, and was axed after five years of slow sales, which we are sure elicited a collective sigh of relief from Wolfsburg. (Funnily enough, Volvo did build a battery-powered C30 prototype, though it obviously never went into production.)

We do note a sharply-sloped roofline—not a bustle-back like the C40 Recharge, but rather a Kammback-ish shape like the C30, not to mention its little-known predecessor, the Euro-market 480, and its spiritual grandparent, the classic P1800. Is that what Volvo wants us to think? Is that why the teaser video only shows the EX30 from the back? Or is it because the taxi-sign lidar bulge above the EX90's windshield looks even bigger and sillier on the EX30? Update: The leaked patent images show us it's pretty much just a shrunken, shortened EX90 in its design.

We're thinking of the C30 as a GTI beater. We're thinking of how fleet-of-foot the Twin Motor versions of the C40 and XC40 Recharge electric SUVs already are, and how just last year we were contemplating how cool a P1800-inspired electric shooting brake from Volvo might be. We're thinking that the EX30 could be a real barrel of laughs. Or maybe it really is just a 1:43-scale model that fits in your pocket. (Hey, it wouldn't be the first or the unfunniest ill-timed April Fool's joke.)

Either way, Volvo does have us excited for the new EX30, which is exactly what a teaser is supposed to do (are you listening, Toyota? One teaser! One!). We're planning to be at the EX30 reveal in June, and we look forward to bringing you all the details, big and small.