I’m standing in the giant mall contained within the Oculus that near the World Trade Center in New York and in front of me is the all new EX60. Technically, we’ve seen the car before, but this was my first up close look, and there was one detail I hadn’t noticed.
It’s a rough time for charging doors. The sudden changeover from CCS to NACS chargers for many automakers has meant that cars not designed for Tesla’s elegantly short Supercharger cords are often a huge ass-pain to charge via chunky adapters.
One of the big issues is that Teslas are designed from the ground-up to access Superchargers and have charging doors that far to the rear of the taillight, typically. With CCS cars, there’s no real standardized charging style and so you often get the doors on the front fender.
Even worse, the doors open at an angle like a normal door, which means if you’re on the wrong side you have to sometimes awkwardly invert it around the charging door to get it to connect. This sucks.
Volvo has solved this problem with a native NACS port directly at the rear of the car. Behold, the Panini Press Charging Door.
This Is A Good Design
I was lucky enough to get a tour of the new EX60 from Garry Kalsaria, Head of Future Vehicles, Volvo Car USA, and Rekha Meena, Global Head of Color, Material, and Finish Design. While a lot of the touches were familiar to me and felt extremely Volvo, which is to say thoughtfully designed and minimalist with light tones, none of that’s really a surprise.
What struck me, though, was when they opened up the charging door. Whoa. It is the sturdiest charging door I’ve ever seen, and it offers a few obvious advantages.
While it’s not the only car with a charging door that opens up (the Model Y does as well, for instance), the concept is sound. You don’t want water or snow or whatever building up while you’re charging, and this door provides at least a small amount of protection.
This is also a chonky boy, with two beefy arms. I’m always nervous about flimsy charging doors and have felt like I was going to accidentally destroy a few of them (sister company Polestar has ludicrously thin-feeling doors). I played with this door and it’s robust.
It’s also wide, and accessing it from multiple angles is probably easier than your average setup. While it’s now correctly set up on the rear fender, this is a global car and different markets have different setups (actually, if they put the charging door on the other side in Europe or wherever, it probably can be the same part).
And, finally, the charging door is just a mechanical thing you press and not some annoying, automatic contraption. Peter called it a “panini press” in our Slack and I am now 100% going to only refer to it as the “Panini Press Door” and I ask all of you to do the same.
The EX60 Doesn’t Do Most Of The Annoying EV Things
One thing that an up close look at a vehicle shows off are details you might not be able to glean from a press release. There are a few common features on modern EVs that I can’t stand, and the EX60 handles the most annoying ones quite well.
The first is the charging door and, as discussed, it has a real, non-powered one. It gets points for that. The second is that the glovebox isn’t opened by a button and, instead, the EX60 gets a central glovebox that’s mechanically actuated. Good job Volvo. This design is also on the soon-to-depart EX30 and I think it’s smart.
One of the biggest sore spots with me, obviously, is the lack of a frunk, and the EX60 has a large and usable one (in this case I couldn’t get a photo because it was being used for display car stuff, but it’s there). Thank you!
Like a lot of modern cars, the HVAC controls are on the screen. I do not love this, but at some point it feels like complaining about the lack of a cigarette lighter. I’m hopeful more automakers will re-embrace buttons.
Overall, The EX60 Is A Competitively-Priced EV In An Overly Competitive Category
Price-comparing modern electric cars is interesting because no one talks about range with gas vehicles, and the tech is advancing so quickly. The cheapest RWD Model Y is $39,990 and gets 321 miles of range, whereas the cheapest AWD Model Y is $57,990 and gets 306 miles.
Here’s what Volvo is offering:
EX60 P6 Up to 307 miles
EX60 P10 AWD Up to 322 miles
EX60 P12 AWD** Up to 400 milesEX60 P6 Plus $58,400
EX60 P6 Ultra $65,000
EX60 P10 AWD Plus $60,750
EX60 P10 AWD Ultra $67,350
The P6 is the RWD version and tops out at 307 miles, though we’ll see what the final EPA tests show. The cheapest AWD has more range, but also costs more than a comparable Model Y. The P12 has the longest range at up to 400 miles (maybe pending wheel choice), but who knows what it’ll cost.
I’m an old-time Volvo guy, so the appeal is of a Volvo is stronger to me, but this is a super crowded space with the new Rivian R2 and Lucid Cosmos, although the pricing here seems to be pretty bang on competitive. I’d probably take this over a Model Y, but I’m not sure about an iX3.
I think if you want an electric Volvo, the company is aware that the EX30 launch was botched, as was the EX90’s rollout. The EX60 is the company’s chance to get it right. If the Panini Press Door is any sign, Volvo has possibly thought this one all the way through.
Top graphic images: Matt Hardigree; DepositPhotos.com
My next car might be a hybrid, or a PHEV, but I will never ever buy an exclusively EV. It just won’t work for my use case. A 1,500+ mile round trip once a month. To tend to my 90-year-old mother’s stuff.
I think about how I’d want the charging port to be on the starboard side because that’s where all the wiring in my garage is situated, but yes, I could string something over to the other side. If I have to. The traffic situation in my condo complex just makes it easier to nose in and not hold others up backing in. It’s not that I can’t. It’s just quicker and with a fully ICE car, it doesn’t matter.
Or maybe someday I build a place from scratch with a solar farm on the roof. Who knows?
My wife and are are dedicated to ass-in/nose-out parking, so when it comes time for an EV the charging point has to be at the rear or GTFO.
I prefer backing into spots, but I do public chargers so rarely it’s not a deal breaker.
Is it though? Is the $40k Model Y a loss leader that you can’t actually buy, like base pickup trucks? Because if not, then this starts $20k higher than a Model Y and I’m failing to see a lot of reason to shell out for that. I guess AWD to AWD it’s competitive, but still higher?
They didn’t botch the EX30 launch, they botched the EX30. It looks like they failed to fix the main flaws in the EX60 as well, notably the awful minimalist interior. People willing to put up with that sh!t are only buying Teslas.
So how stupid would it be to suggest manufacturers put one charging port in the middle rear and one in the middle front, say where the license plates are, with just one usable at any given time, and call it a day?
They typically only do one since DCFC capable wiring is expensive and heavy . A middle rear charge port under the license plate like some classics would be slick, but ergonomically suspect.
Some EVs (old Leaf, Kona, and EV1) do them right on and nose, but I’ve heard complaints they fill with ice or bugs, depending on the season. The EV6 seems to have one of the best placements right on the tail, and they actually swapped the side of the port unlike the Ioniq 5 platform twin with the NACS update in 25 because it didn’t require retooling the whole rear fender/quarter panel area.
The cheapest AWD Model Y is not $57k.
The cheapest Y AWD model is $41.9k / 294 mi range.
The Y Premium AWD is $49.9k / 327 mi range.
The Y Performance is $57.9k / 306 mi range.
We can standardize headlights, brake lights, steering wheel side, and so on. Is it too much to standardize charge port side and Charger cable position/cable length/et cetera?
Trogdor only needed 1 really beefy arm… just saying.
Trogdor was a Ferrari fan, referenced by the “Burninator” tag.
Be grateful it doesn’t require Bluetooth.
Someone is going to put a sandwich in there and it’s gonna be Matt’s fault.
There was a comment about cigarette lighters too. I feel like this is the modern compromise. Sadly you’ll only get the spiral grill marks on one side.
A luxury car should have 2 charging ports.
So the Taycan or the Leaf?
I personally don’t get why you would want to use a frunk. yes, great to have one.
But in reality? Way too complicated to use it.
My EX30 has one – but yeah, rather small. Anyways, I never use it because it’s not convenient. 2x pulling for opening the hood, getting in front to put something small in there and then smashing the hood and making lots of noise? No..not working for me.
So my Volvos frunk stays empty.
I actually like it for stuff you carry but seldom use, like a first aid kit or emergency battery. It keeps the rear space in my car less cluttered.
Not a great place for first aid kit in case of an accident, if it is a frontal crash 😉 Yes maybe first aid kid might night be the solution to all problems. But let’s say it could help stop a bleeding for example…and your front is smashed. You will have no chance to get to it.
(of course same could happen to the trunk, sure).
But in general I get what you mean. Maybe someday I will find a use for my trunk, too 😀
Good point on the first aid kit.
I would keep a copy of my last will and testament in there. And the manual nobody ever reads anyway.
The frunk is awesome, I use mine for storing valuables out of site when parking at trailheads since it is electric access only and doesn’t have a window. It is also great for smelly stuff like dog food on trips with the dog in the car.
Model Y frunk holds the grandaughters carry on sized suitcase perfectly. When we are not traveling it holds her kid size porta potty so she doesnt have to go into a bathroom that may contain a biological male…
When my daughter was toddler age and I took her to the bathroom there were plenty of biological males because I had to take her to the men’s room when a family bathroom wasn’t available. We never had issues and perhaps you need to stop clutching your pearls.
He had to have forgotten the /s. Right? Right??
I dont want trans men in the womens bathroom. no /s
Hey Frank, trans men would go in the men’s room like other men. You’re thinking about trans women, who would use the women’s room like any other woman. With a stall, with a door, to go pee.
Anyway, get out of here with your blatant transphobia. It’s not welcome.
What can I say? People are dumb…
I would like to keep MEN out of the womens restrooms, thanks and no /s
Our newly-ordered EV’s froot (my preferred name for the front boot) has drainage holes so you can store ice in it and use it like an esky (ice box) on hot days. Doubt I’d ever use it for that but I like the idea of it. Otherwise we just plan to keep charging cables in it.
“Elegantly short”
I’ve got to remember that when I’m trying to convince my wife to give me some love.
George Foreman’s Lean Mean Grilling Machine or GTFO.
Why can’t it just have a regular gas door where you can pull out the charger at 6 to 12 feet on a retractable spool like vacuums have? What decades old proven technology is passe the tech bois want to applify everything by making it needlessly complicated?
My vacuum started to have trouble re-spooling its cord after a few years. Personally, I don’t want to deal with 12 feet of liquid cooled heavy duty charging cable inside my car
Seems like a logical charging door. I’m not sold on the left rear as a location. Even though Tesla and their followers have foamed ay the mouth about it. It seems less so now. Front always seemed logical to me. Left rear could be the worst for street charging. Could be annoying for using in a garage too depending on setup. The doors opening towards the cable could always be problematic this fixes that at least. The new leaf with the separate ac and DC doors on either side of the front also seems like there could be marit. Maybe make them both ac and DC capable. Then you also build into some redundancy in what could be the one most problematic components of many bev.
I think front or rear centered on the car makes the most sense, maybe behind the license plate, or hidden under a section of one of those full-width LED strips everyone likes to do now
It seems like with bev always having to look to the past to find the most elegant solution. I’m surprised under the license plate hasn’t been done other then some resto mods.
I think the new electric FIAT Panda has a single central port in the front but also an umbilical extension cord that covers the two front corners (at least) for charging is probably the best design for street side parking.
That is a good design I saw a car wow video and forgot about it. Cables are definitely an issue for urban charting they could probably solve that with having the cable on board.
In the end, it does not matter too much, as long it is not a door in the grille like on Hyundai Kona or Kia PV5. This position is bad in winter times, due to freezing water and especially snow accumulation while driving. It can be a pain in the ass to open these – trust me, I’ve been there. Been testing EVs in wintertimes in sweden.
Rear left works fine, at least for me. But I get your argument with street parking. Depens a lot on the length of the charging cables.
The location of the charge port might be more of an issue in the US now because of the Tesla dispensers with the short cables. People are having to park very strangely. Though ac charging seems where left rear is the most problematic. Especially on the street but also garages and even parking garages where you park front in only. Not everyone wants to back into spaces either. I’ve had a few leaf charge doors get frozen in Colorado winters. I keep some isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle does the trick. I have a little battery powered heat gun that I’ve never used for it but have heard others use them. Along with some commercial deicer spray bottles.
At least here in Europe, if you charge AC (so usually 11/22 kW peak), you will use your own cable. These are usually 5-7m long. I have a 7m long cable. So no matter how I park, there won’t be any issue. But of course I drive an EX30, so a rather short vehicle.
With DC chargers with integrated cables it is sometimes a bit tricky, I have to admit. But still, even rear left on my Volvo works perfectly fine.
Yeah, most evse sold in the US have a 5-7m cable as well. I’ve seen a 7m hard to stretch from the wall and outlet it’s mounted on to the left rear. Most people don’t back into their garage either. Some tesla people get outlets run to the front of their garage to better accommodate the location. It seems more common have a shorter run or even a breaker box at the front of a garage.
I had a panini on vacation yesterday and it was the first one I’d eaten in at least five years. Ya know what? Paninis rule.
sandwiches < hot sandwiches < hot sandwiches with grill marks (aka paninis)
Panini is already plural. The singular is panino.
It’s one of those language things that is so commonly wrong that it’s become acceptable. Like how literally now also means figuratively, or how literally every car is a coupe now.
I used “panini” as a singular in front of an actual Italian and the ensuing rage-correction has really stuck with me.
What about the door handles? Are they mechanical?
There are door handles?
to get in, no, to get out.. yes
I thought he was going to address this. “There are a few common features on modern EVs that I can’t stand, and the EX60 handles the most annoying ones quite well.”
Yesn’t. They’re electronic on the exterior, but they’re electronic and mechanical within the same handle on the interior.
Does that mean that you have to wait for them to emerge so that you can grab hold of them and open them by pulling a mechanically linked handle?
Or is a system where an electric motor or solenoid opens the door?
The first is annoying, the second is unacceptable.
I took a Tesla 3 Lyft a couple of weeks ago, and it had some aftermarket exterior door handles installed. Some carbon fiber things seemed to be glued to the original handles. Ugly, but clever. The car was festooned with other crap that would have J C Whitney blush, but the door handles were great
The handles seem to be fixed upward facing fins that stick out from the windowline, whose inward facing surface is a rubberized button thing similar to a typical tailgate release button. The door latch is most likely motor or solenoid operated from the outside. For a Lyft customer, once they figure out that the small black painted fins are the door handles, the rest should be very straightforward.
Does it use motors to open the charging door? Been watching Out of Spec Renew on YouTube out of curiosity to see what goes into fixing an EV and the amount of unique bullshit parts that they stop manufacturing after 6 years that will instantly render an EV worthless is insane.
Thankfully no. It appears all mechanical…as the lord intended it.
Thank you for answering even though I didn’t deserve it because of my poor reading comprehension.
No but you must subscribe to a subscription plan
All part of the plan. From automakers POV cars last way too long these days. The faster they age out, the sooner they get to sell another car. The overly excessive tech is another selling point, especially as it’s becoming ever harder to upgrade aftermarket.
Doesn’t a good panini press have a free-swinging top so that as you shut it, the top can lay perfectly flat on the top of the sandwich rather than squishing it at an angle? This looks like a normal fuel/charger door that just opens vertically instead of horizontally.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/brentwood-select-ceramic-panini-press-btwts611
Why can I buy a panini press at Tractor Supply?
Why not? Sometimes you just need to pickup a sandwich maker along with a pair of pliers and some fence wire.
Well, those days on the tractor can get really long. Sometimes you need a sandwhich, and the best sandwhiches are made on a panini press.
I remember a cookbook for cooking stews and the like in pots wired to a tractor engine compiled by some farmers’ wife organization. I remember that there were cooking times for Caterpillar vs AC, vs John Deere. I can’t imagine more than a 6-hour stint on a Deere, we didn’t use ours for stuff like that.
I live in a rural-ish area and during harvest times, the combines are out well after dark, harvesting by their lights. I would imagine they pack lunch or dinner because I don’t see them taking breaks. Of course I’m not watching them the entire time.
Tell me about it. Summers between school, I worked almost exclusively on farms. It was nothing to work fields from sun up to sun down, then more time tending your machinery. A cooler is a necessity, but a panini press would make those cool down periods under a tree go so nice.
For the same reason that you can get Lodge cast iron cookware – they’re trying to expand their market by catering to the camping crowd. Though it sounds like with the panini press, they’re now going even further and going after the glamping crowd?
I think it’s clear Matt has never used a panini press. Just repeating what the company rep says even though it’s obviously wrong? Not cool.
Hmm, I think this was an internal to Autopian nickname idea actually:
Peter called it a “panini press” in our Slack and I am now 100% going to only refer to it as the “Panini Press Door”
Yeah, it’s only vaguely like an actual panini press, but it’s amusing nonetheless.
It’s a perfectly adequate nickname. The downside is that now Torch will be randomly tracking down EX60s so that he can make paninis to feed his sock puppet.
Looks more like a Seal dry mount press to me
My Polestar2 while only 3yo at this point is starting to feel decidedly out of date, but you know what its got? Regular-ass door handles, a mechanically latched glovebox, and a completely manual charger flap. If only the infotainment system, backup camera, and phone app were reliable it’d be darn-near perfect!
I feel like manufacturers recently have been taking the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and instead turning it into “If it ain’t broke, imagine the money we could charge if we had to fix it for them” and adding all manner of non mechanical things.
Or even more money by renting the fix to them.
More like “If it’s not breaking, let’s fix that so it does.” Especially with ADAS system integration these days, where you can’t update the infotainment later on.
I’ve got the C40 which is essentially the same bones. That’s what I liked about it, lot’s of mechanical parts.
The phone app may be slightly different, but I’ve had no issues with the Volvo app and after the 5.0.5 sw update, no issues with the backup camera. Slow (but usable) IHCU is my only complaint.
I have never managed to get my app to pair with the car to use the phone as a key. The backup camera locks up occasionally but always starts again after a restart which is a common complaint for the PS2. And on a few occasions the AC has refused to blow cold. Once I was able to reset the head unit by holding the home button and it came back on but the other times I had to shut the whole car off to get it going again.
My 1978 Fiat spider has regular ass door handles a mechanicaly latched glove box, and a manual gas flap. Your Polestar 2 has technology that was everyday in 1978. Booyah
My S60 Recharge is in the same boat. Only difference is my infotainment and backup camera are great. Especially with the new update. 2026 sexy on 2023 hardware.
I got the 5.0.10 update about a month ago but don’t really notice any difference. It’s not enough of a hassle for me to worry about taking it in for service yet though, right now it just gives the car some character.
For mine, the interface is much cleaner, and everything is a bit snappier. Or maybe just less laggy. I do like that the drive modes are now one press away, rather than menu buried. I like that the drivers map is now bigger area wise so that it looks less like a sub-map of the center stack.
They must have a different stack for the Volvos, my P2 didn’t get any of those changes. I’ve pretty much completely given up on the built-in Android Automotive though (it struggled keeping podcasts synced) so I plug my phone in to use Android Auto instead. I just like that interface better.
The headline made me think 1) this was actually a mislabeled Torch piece, and 2) there’d be more vehicular food prep involved like a 21st century sizzler.
Or at least a coupon for some paninis!!!
Imagine if you could invent a panini press that used fresh bread dough and cooked it while toasting the bread melting the cheese and the other ingredients? That would be the greatest thing ever.
Once again if you like what I have designed here contact me for help and to send me my royalties
I was expecting to read about a refrigerated center console so you can store your panini ingredients before grilling. Sorely and hungrily disappointed.
I was expecting a panini maker plugged into the charge port, with the car providing electricity to make a bunch of sandwiches for all the attendees. I’m hungry now.
Better off with a grill better food better volume
I’m so tired of complicated door handles on these EVs.
I hate the handles on our Mach-E.
I’m curious what you think of the rest of it. It really seems, from what I can tell, like an all-around good package that most EV buyers are sleeping on.
Overall, we love it. We have a 2023 Premium AWD extended range, and it’s been 2 completely trouble-free years putting 30k miles on it. It’s fast, comfortable, plenty of range, looks good, drives well etc.
All of my complaints are minor: software lags a bit behind Tesla and others, Phone as a key sometimes takes too long to recognize you’re standing next to the car, the door handles are dumb, no cooled seats.
Cool. I still wonder if they might really have taken off if Ford had named it something else, to better emphasize the newness of it. The Bishop likes Torino, I like Galaxy, but it could have become the start of a whole family (as Ford likes to call it) of Ford EVs.
https://pimpmyev.com/products/door-pull-handles-for-ford-mustang-mach-e-2021-2026
I’ve seen them. These are just pull handles for the back doors to match the front. But you still have to use the button to open the door, vs a normal pull handle.
There’s no way I’m spending close to $60k for an AWD Model Y that forces me to subscribe to a (quite good but nowhere near perfect) so-called “Full Self-Driving” for $100 plus tax a month to get automatic lane keeping that literally everyone else has standard. Keep this for three years and that’s the price difference right there. Looks like a great vehicle that will undoubtedly drive well. Any hints how the Geely Volvos have held up?
$60k what-what?
An AWD Model Y is $41k, $49k or $57k, and that’s only because they got up by $1k two days ago. Is the Performance model your only option?
This Volvo is consistently $10k to $17k above what a matching Tesla costs (provided the Volvo has a Performance model).