Volvo XC40: sensationally good EV debut
Volvo’s first pure EV arrives. And of course it’s good
Why ever would you doubt that the XC40 would turn out to be tremendous? It’s not much of a stretch to argue that this car is exactly what Volvo has been leading up to throughout the 93 years since its founders dragged themselves away from a gloomy teatime drama on Swedish public radio and decided to make safe, comfortable, responsible and quietly stylish cars.
Volvos have rarely been about speed or handling or light weight, so moving beyond internal combustion is not a soul-tearing transition. And now Volvo has gone EV with its huge-selling compact crossover, a car designed from the off to accommodate a variety of power sources.
The result is a car with lively acceleration (4.9 seconds to 62mph), good real-world range (more than 200 miles per charge) and a Google-based infotainment system, on top of all the other qualities that make every other XC40 feel so good to drive or be passengered in. Considering that the powertrain is completely different, and the weight much greater, it does a very good job of offering the same mix of refinement, comfort and modernity.
It’s for now only available in a near-£60,000 spec’d-up First Edition model. Even with all the electric comfort features and safety aids Volvo could find in its warehouse, the XC40 interior is still clean, simple, modern and airy. Boot capacity is unaltered, and there’s a modest trunk at the front, but the charging cable almost fills that up.
The new infotainment merges smartphone-familiar features like Google Assistant and Google Maps with the usual Volvo touchscreen (a 12.3-inch version in this case). It’s a breeze to operate by voice, with the upshot that you spend very little time looking at the screen and thumbing through menus wondering how to adjust your seat heater. The answer to just about everything now starts with saying ‘Hey Google’ and letting Silicon Valley do the rest.
The 78kWh lithium-ion battery (75kWh net) is under the floor, with one electric motor on the rear axle and one on the front, for all-wheel drive. We drove for 50 miles, a mix of town and country with a lot of stop-start and a bit of pedal-to-the-metal, and by the end it still reckoned it had 155 miles of charge. If you use a fast charger, your mid-journey stops could be a relatively decent 40 minutes (from empty to 80 per cent). There’s not much to be gained by caning it. It’s much happier breezing around smoothly and quietly, and so will you be.
You can make the steering firmer, and there’s an off-road setting, but the main choice is whether to go for One Pedal driving. If you do, the electric motors do most of your slowing down for you. If you don’t, the car will coast when you throttle back, and you need to press the brake pedal in the conventional way. Potentially less energy is lost in One Pedal driving; it’s generally much smoother with One Pedal off.
Expect lower-spec and lower-powered versions to follow. And assuming Volvo executes those as well as it’s executed the P8, those more affordable EVs should retain all of this range-topper’s best qualities: its style, its feelgood factor and its easygoing nature.
The answer to everything starts with saying ‘Hey Google’ and letting Silicon Valley do the rest