Major car brand warns drivers not to charge EV batteries beyond 70% amid serious fire fears

It stated that an issue with the 69kWh battery pack, which includes nickel-managanese-cobalt modules, could overheat and cause a fire.

If the cells inside a battery overheat, this can lead to a fire, which can spread to the rest of the pack and ignite the vehicle.

The brand has warned owners of the Single Motor Extended Range and Twin Motor Performance EX30 that they should not charge their vehicles beyond 70 per cent to mitigate the risk of an issue taking place.

They have also been told not to charge their vehicles unattended when charging indoors or in covered areas.

A DVSA notice stated: "Currently, the investigation is still ongoing with the final service solution being developed."

The Swedish brand told Autocar that the risk of the "rare issue" is significantly reduced when the vehicle is below 70 per cent charge.

Drivers can stop the car from charging more than a certain percentage in the charge settings menu, which can be found in the infotainment system.

It is estimated that around 0.02 per cent of the 33,777 EX30 models on UK roads are believed to be impacted by the battery issue.

Volvo have not heard of any personal injuries relating to the battery fault, and did not reveal whether it would require any impacted vehicles to be brought to a specialist.

Most modern electric vehicles will warn motorists if the battery cells overheat, with an alert coming up on the touchscreen infotainment system.

It will alert drivers to the issue and usually advise them to stop the vehicle if they are driving and exit safely.

Volvo confirmed that it would look to introduce a recall as soon as possible to fix any cars that could be impacted by the battery issue as soon as possible.

It added: "In the meantime, we are contacting all affected owners to ask them to limit their cars' maximum charge level to 70 per cent.

"We will contact them again as soon as a fix is available."

Volvo clarified that other models are not impacted by the issue, while other EX30 models are not affected.

The Volvo EX30 was the 10th best-selling electric vehicle on the market in the UK last year, with an impressive 10,289 sales.

Another popular Volvo model, the XC40, was ranked as the seventh best-selling vehicle with 30,404 new registrations, beating out the likes of the MG HS, Volkswagen Tiguan and Hyundai Tucson.