Fired up by bums on seats!
BY THE seat of my pants, I’ve just been driving Volvo’s first fully electric car before it arrives in UK showrooms in March. That’s because the new XC40 Recharge SUV has no ignition switch, no dashboard nor console button to press to fire up its motor. Instead, my posterior proved sufficient to starting this family-friendly Swedish 4x4.
Providing you have its electronic fob about your person, the moment your derriere lands on the driver’s seat, sensors send a signal to start. It took some getting used to. I was driving the P8 First Edition — a fully-loaded model costing £60,005 — twice as much as a petrol version and £10,000 too expensive to qualify for a taxpayer-funded £3,000 plug-in car grant.
More affordable versions are planned, fortunately.
It can also be ordered in the UK on Volvo’s new mobile phone-style subscription service, Care by Volvo, at £999 per month, including maintenance, breakdown assistance, road tax, MoT, and a 10GB data plan for the in-car entertainment system. There are also personal contract purchase (PCP) and personal contract hire (PCH) plans.
Riding on 20 in wheels, my car with a panoramic glass roof came in a sophisticated Farrow & Balllike shade called Sage Green.
It’s a smooth and wellmannered mover around town, but you swiftly discover the fun-loving and raucous side as the inner-Viking emerges.
Twin electric motors — one on each axle — produce a hefty 408 hp, enabling rest to 62 mph in just 4.9 seconds. It feels good on corners, too. But to reduce road casualties, all new Volvos are speed limited to 112 mph.
It has a claimed 260-mile range on a single charge — sufficient for the average UK daily drive of about 30 miles, but longer journeys — say 300 miles from London to Newcastle — would need a recharge en route.
The Swedish firm, owned by Chinese giant Geely, says batteries will reach 80 per cent of capacity in 40 minutes on a fast charger, with a domestic wall box doing the job overnight in about ten hours.