The 2022 Volvo XC40 Recharge Is Just The Beginning | Volvo’s First Electric Crossover Is Just The Beginning –
Volvo shocked the auto industry a few years ago when they announced that they would be the first traditional auto manufacturer to go fully electric in a relatively short period of time.
They then announced that the engine family found in most volvos would be the last gasoline engine that they would ever design.
They then released a slew of plug-in hybrid vehicles, and today volvo sells more plug-and-hybrid vehicles as a percentage of total sales.
Volvo sold a whole 20% of plug-in hybrid cars in the United States last month, a full 29% in Europe, and over 50% of all volvos in California.
Now it’s time for volvo to go to the next level with full electric vehicles, and the first full electric vehicle in their portfolio is the xc40 recharge.
Volvo’s path to electrification is as pragmatic as anything in their lineup.
It doesn’t just include full electric vehicles like this xc40 recharge or plug-in hybrid vehicles like the plug-in hybrid xc60; it also includes mild hybrid vehicles with their new 48-volt hybrid system, and we’ll be seeing that across the rest of their lineup in North America eventually.
Every Volvo currently on the market in North America was built from the ground up to support electrification.
For larger volvos like the xc60 or xc90, this was primarily the plug-in hybrid systems that we see in those vehicles.
For the xc40, however, the mission was different from the start.
This was built to accommodate an electric drivetrain, which means that this is not simply a hybrid vehicle with a larger battery pack jammed on board.
This vehicle has two electric motors, each with 201 horsepower and 243 pound-feet of torque, for a total of 402 horsepower and 486 pound-feet of torque.
In comparison to the polestar 2, the battery is a 78 kilowatt hour battery pack, with 75 kilowatt hours useable, giving you an epa range of 208 miles.
Because the xc40 is less aerodynamic and has different wheels and tires, it gets around 25 miles less range than the pulstar ii.
It’s attempting to be more of a liftback, more of a sedan.
For the more brave EV consumer out there, this is obviously more upright and boxy, and hence less aerodynamic.
Volvo has given us a towing rating of 2 000 pounds, which is about 1500 pounds less than the 2-liter turbo model, and a water fording rating of 17 inches, which makes sense.
Front seat comfort is the same as the regular xc40 because we have the same seats and a manual extending thigh cushion right there.
Volvo continues to prefer manual tilt telescopic steering columns with a large range of motion over powered ones you should know that the front passenger seat has exactly the same range of motion as the driver’s seat, which we don’t find in all of the ev competition combined legroom comes in at 77 inches, which is p The foot well is a little tighter than I’d like, but I can still fit my size 11’s in there and still have about half an inch of leg room left the rear seats fold in a 60 40 fashion both the outboard sitting positions are heated in this model we have a center armrest right here with two cup holders and then a ski pass through in the middle when it comes to cargo capacity keep in mind that this is a sub compact, not a compact, so logically the cargo capacity is lower There’s also a ski pass through back there front cargo areas are all the rage and we do have one in the xc40 but it’s definitely smaller than some of the eevee competition there’s just about enough room here to store the evse right here you can see that this does come from the factory with a 40 amp 240 volt evse and that’s why this section the cable is so chunky under the floor we have a little bit of extra space Many of you have asked me on social media why the luggage compartment under the hood isn’t as large as the one found in the Mustang.
In this vehicle, you can fit a 24 inch rolling bag inside the front trunk and still seal the lid, or you could store an even larger variety of charging adapters and cables.
If you measure from the front of the car to the rear here where the windshield wipers are, the answer is really rather straightforward.
Because this car is nine inches shorter than the Mustang Maki, there isn’t as much space.
The xc40 is a smaller vehicle, but it still requires all of the other components that make a modern car work, such as radiators for cooling the battery, inverter, and air conditioning (the heat pump is an optional feature on this vehicle), a steering rack, a windshield wiper reservoir right here, a brake reservoir, brake master cylinder, and all of the other components that make a normal vehicle work.
The electric motor has to be somewhere, and that somewhere is right back there in that area.
If they made this nine inches longer, it would no longer be a sub compact ev, but they could logically have given you a larger area there back on the inside.
We find the module that contains most of Volvo’s active safety hardware right there behind the rear view mirror.
The ceiling fabric has an appealing woven pattern, but the sun visors do not slide, which I believe is a shame, and you’ll see that the cloth covering the moon roof is not totally opaque, which would be my choice.
We have height adjustable shoulder belts and, interestingly, height adjustable headrests, which is unusual for Volvo because most volvos have completely fixed headrests.
As with other modern volvos, there’s a little swedish flag on the front seats.
These seats aren’t as aggressively bolstered as some of volvo’s design models, but we still have decent side bolsters right there.
The software, in my opinion, needs a little more time in the oven; there is no apple carplay or android auto just yet; supposedly, those will be available via an over-the-air update a little later; yes, I said over-the-air update because this system will support complete over-the-air updates; however, you will notice that the rest of the system does not appear to be as fully featured as the previous generation of volvo’s infotainment software; there is no screen providing you The bottom line appears to be that Google’s in-car operating system still needs some work, which we see in the related pollstar models, but it is definitely snappy and easy to use, and that home button there brings you back to that particular screen.
I should also mention that the google mapping interface is also incredibly well done, and the voice commands are excellent, and you can command things like the climate control via the voice system below the steering wheel.
We have a joystick style shifter here that no longer requires a double tap I simply pull back for drive push forward for reverse park is that button right there two big cup holders there between the front seats we have a usbc charge only port a usbc interface port for the system but you can’t plug your smartphone like this iphone in there and use that usb media interface that doesn’t work with the system at this point in time we have a usbc charge only port a usbc interface This large lcd instrument cluster on the driver’s side, as you can see, has a large map display right there, but aside from these two views, this display is not as adjustable as you’ll find in modern bmws, audis, or of course mercedes models.
There’s also a pop-up menu in the middle where we can get things like our trip computer readouts, but other than those and simply closing that menu, this display is not as adjustable as you’ll On the left side, we have controls for adaptive cruise control and Volvo’s aggressive lane centering system, and on the right side, we have controls for the multi-function lcd as well as a voice command button.
You’ll notice there are no paddle shifters on the back of the steering wheel, and we only have drive right over here.
If you want to enable one pedal drive in the system, you can go up ove here.
The battery in this vehicle is essentially under the front seats under the back seats in this area of the vehicle right there in that center tunnel and then a little bit back here towards the cargo area of the vehicle this is not a skateboard style battery pack it’s more like a cross between a skateboard battery pack and one that’s bolted underneath the body out on the road you need to hold on because this will go 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds, which is a little bit slower than a skateboard Certain versions of that Jaguar will undoubtedly be more expensive than this xc, but in my six to zero braking test, it took 118 feet to stop this vehicle from 60 miles per hour, which is one foot shorter than the last xc40 I tested, which was a t5r design.
That stopping distance surprised me because, again, this is about a thousand pounds heavier, but it does have those 255 with tires in the back and it does have decent brakes.
The regen braking system is also something we need to discuss because, like most evs outside of Tesla’s, it has a blended braking system, which means that even when you’re not in one pedal drive mode and you put your foot on the brake pedal to slow down, the regen is what stops you unless you’re commanding more than about 0.3 g’s, in which case it will engage the friction brakes, but it can stop almost completely just using the regend ability.
This is a little more balanced than the turbocharged model because, despite the extra thousand pounds, it’s low slung in the vehicle and it’s further in the back than the regular gasoline model because there’s an electric motor back there and of course most of the battery is behind me in this particular design as far as the fun factor goes obviously volvo gave this a whole lot more power than the regular xc40 but they also chose to channel that power a little bit differently than the regular xc40 Volvo performs the tests and then handles the calculations and certification submissions, as does Tesla, and there are essentially two ways to do this.
You can either run the complete panel of five cycles or you can run the basic panel of cycles and then calculate what you would have gotten on the complete panel of five cycles.
You can then choose to derate your vehicle if you believe that number is not realistic or if you simply prefer.
Keep in mind that your range will vary depending on your driving style, topography, climate, and other factors, so while I got about 208 miles of range out of this vehicle, you could get more or less depending on exactly what you’re doing with it, and that goes for any new electric vehicle out there.
Over a week of mixed driving, I was pretty much spot on with the estimates, getting about 2.8 miles per kilowatt hour out of this vehicle, which is comparable to most modern evs I The new Tesla Model Y with the second generation battery pack in that vehicle should get longer range.
I haven’t been able to test that model yet, but you will get longer range.
Some other evs out there, like the Jaguar i-pace, have a pretty big battery thankfully, and even though Jaguar hasn’t revised their epa estimates, they’ve made some significant changes to the software and relative efficiency of the vehicle so it will get longer range than this.
Almost everything in the lineup will be at least a mild hybrid, and there will be a lot of plug-in hybrids as well.
In California, it appears that about 50 percent or more of all volvos are sold as plug-in hybrids.
Then we’ll see the oncoming onslaught of full electric vehicles from volvo, starting with the xc40.
It’s important to remember that the xc40 will not be the electric option from volvo; it will be one of the If I were you, I’d go with the ultimate trim, which has heat pump adaptive cruise control.
On top of that, you can add quality paintwork and 20-inch wheels, as well as heated rear seats and a premium audio system.
There’s also a style package, and if you add everything to the car, you’ll finish up with a price of roughly 62 040, but there’s still that whole $7,500 federal tax credit, bringing the fully equipped xc40 down to 54 540.
To be honest, I believe the i-pace has been unfairly judged by my fellow journalists and the general public.
It’s important to remember how novel the i-pace was when Jaguar began development.
At the time, tesla had the roadster and there were rumblings that the model s might be on the way, so the world in which Jaguar was developing the i-pace had not yet seen the model y, model 3, or eve.
Jaguar has also had a few stumbles when it comes to range ratings because they decided to be very conservative with the rating on the i-pace, then tweaked and fiddled with things year after year to give it more and more range, but they’ve never bothered to update the epa range estimates, so the sticker still has a fairly low range estimate for the real world range that we actually get on that i-pace, which could be about 260 to 270 miles in the real world I hope Jaguar refreshes the infotainment system soon, and a price cut wouldn’t hurt either.
Now let’s move on to the model y because it’s the elephant in the room, the one that everyone will be comparing everything to.
The model y is more expensive, starting at $54,990, and has no federal tax credit, so most people in this segment will obviously qualify for the full federal tax credit.
Next up is the bmw ix, which is bmw’s compact luxury crossover with 201 horsepower and will qualify for the full federal tax credit.
The price tag is a little higher than the others, starting at 83 200, and that’s because we won’t be getting the entry-level versions of the ix in the United States, we’ll only be getting the more powerful versions.
Another reason for the greater price is that the battery is larger.
The volvo xc40 is going to be solidly in the 220 to say 240 mile range depending on exactly how you drive it so definitely below 250 pretty much right where we’re going to see some versions of the audi q4 e-tron and not too far off where we see the jaguar i-pace but those range figures do fall below where we see the mustang maki in real-world driving the tesla model y in real-world driving despite the fact that At the present, I believe there are a few problems that Volvo has to fix.
The infotainment software should have had vehicle play at launch, and satellite radio should have also been there at launch.
It’s been a long time since the software was in production again; it initially debuted in the Polestar 2.
It will now be seen not just in the xc40 recharge, but also in a number of other Volvo vehicles for 2022.
So I think it’s a sore spot for some customers that carplay is still missing.
I’ve heard a lot of excuses from volvo and polestar blaming it on apple, blaming it on google, but I believe volvo is to blame.
I don’t know exactly what’s going on inside, but we do know that other google-based operating systems for in-card use do have apple carplay and they work just fine, so clearly this is something volvo is to Let me know what you think about all of that in the comments area below, and of course, if you were looking to spend $50,000 to $60,000 on your next electric vehicle, would you spend the additional money and get the Tesla Model Y or would you simply pay the extra money and get the Model Y? The model y will absolutely dc fast charge quicker than the xc40, and it will travel longer on a charge than the xc40, but it isn’t the same animal.
Let me know if that concerns, and you can reach me at alexanders.com.
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