The Volvo XC40 is a brilliant city car. It has plenty of room, without a large footprint. It deftly nips about through pockmarked, narrow, congested city streets. Charging this 69kw battery is much improved and only takes around 5 hours to get a full charge from just below 50% battery on a slow 7kw charger. It’s a single motor and is front wheel drive, which is a bit of a shame as a rear wheel drive version I imagine, would be a huge amount of fun. I’m full sure the interior on this Fjord Blue spec is based on a 70’s Swedish front living room. Even the carpets are matching blue.
Special mention : Space without being ‘too big’, quality feel, excellent at navigating congested city streets. Charging is much improved in this Single Motor, 69 kw/h version.
Needs work : Driving dynamics just a height/weight/rwd tweak away from being very fun, just fun for now. There’s a ‘buzz’ from the interior ambient lights when it starts to get dark and the dash lights turn on. Hopefully a simple bulb or wire fix.
| BHP 231 BHP | Electric / Auto |
| 0-100 km/h in 7.4 seconds | Road Tax €120 |
| Price: €58,980 before SEAI Grant €53,980 After SEAI Grant | Boot space 452 litres Range 415 km |
This new fully electric XC40 is the first of five electric vehicles that Volvo is launching in the next five years and the manufacturer wants electric cars to account for half of its global sales by 2025.
The differences between this fully electric version and the rest of the range is that this XC40 grille is colour coded (no matter what exterior colour you go for) which does look very different and makes it stand out. Other differences include the Recharge logos at the back of the car and there’s also exclusive alloy wheel designs. There’s a charge port where you would have otherwise found the petrol cap and power comes from a 69 kilowatt hour lithium ion battery.
Charging the battery using a 150 kilowatt charger will go from zero percent to 80% in just 50 minutes. From a home wall box charger you’ll need an overnight charge to get the full capacity. The battery is under the floor which means there is a slightly reduced ground clearance of 175 millimeters compared to 211 millimeters in the regular model. The space inside and the 452 litre boot capacity is unchanged so you still have loads of space in the back plus a new handy spot in the front to keep the charging cables.
Inside, just like the outside, it’s very similar to the other XC40’s that we’re used to. There are a few changes like the new infotainment system which has been developed with Google and Android. It’s essentially the same software used in the new Polestar 2 but the look of it is slightly different and it’s not a world away from what we’re used to in previous Volvo’s. You get Google Maps (slow and hesitant here) as standard and you also get Google Assistant to help with voice command functions. It’s quick to respond to touch inputs, it looks slick, it’s got a nice layout but one slight criticism remains being that the icons for the sub menus are just a bit on the small side. It would be more helpful if they were bigger so that they’re easier to hit on the move.
The digital driver display is minimal but has everything that’s necessary. There are some additional EV specific functions that show you how much battery range you’ve got left rather than how empty your fuel tank is.
Elsewhere in this very Swedish of interiors, it has a high quality feel which all starts with the steering wheel. You would assume the Audi e-Tron to be the benchmark for electric car interior quality but the XC40 is certainly among the best. There are some materials that are slightly cheaper feeling but still very good quality which you’d want for a car this expensive.
Regarding performance, the first thing to say is that it is very quick. It’s got one electric motor with 231 HP powering through the front wheels. It’s quick enough to get from 0-100 km/h in just 7.5 seconds. It’s a fun car to drive which, if they put their mind to it, could be made a lot more so, with a little tweak to the weight, gravity and switching it all to the rear wheels, you’d have an extremely adept and dynamic drive.
You don’t necessarily want to drive this car incredibly quickly because it’s tall and it’s heavy, so if you do go around a corner relatively quickly then there’s quite a lot of body lean. You get the feeling that this car’s made for nipping around town and long distance motorway cruising because it does have a good ride.
Due to the slightly stiff ride, potholes and broken roads intrude on the suspension with some thuds as you drive across things that an Audi e-Tron would glide over. It doesn’t detract entirely from what is a quiet and quick EV. There are a few different settings in the main menu, to get to them you click on the settings button and you’re presented with a pretty dense manual, instead of some nice friendly icons with very small text which can be difficult to read. If you’re not familiar with the system, this can make it a little overwhelming and not especially easy to use on the move.
Using regenerative braking to save energy, you lift off the accelerator and the car will slow itself down and it will eventually bring it to a complete stop. This is great around town because it means you rarely have to touch the brake pedal but the thing is now in the electric car world if you really want to grab headlines and grab the attention of the mainstream then you’ve got to have a product that’s either really cheap or has the ability to travel really far on a single charge.
Starting from around €58,730 which is on the high side, the WLTP range of this car is rated up to 415 kilometers which is good and it’s among the better ranges available of new EV’s but it’s not really an average petrol tank range. Don’t forget that cars like the VW ID3 and Tesla Model 3 come with ranges over 600 kilometers, which is as it should be. In this XC40 because it doesn’t offer that, it feels a little behind but on the other hand it’s much more interesting to drive. It feels plush throughout and the acceleration really is very impressive. It’s a car that you don’t hesitate to get into if you know you’ll be stuck in the worst of commuter traffic as it makes it all so breezy.