welcome to tech in a car this is a volvo xc40 recharge electric suv and i really like this
car it's got a ton of cool technology it's really simple to drive i'm going to show you
around and show you what's cool show you the features in this video this model is a twin
pro but there's also the core model and the plus the core starts from 619 pounds a month or 49
950 pounds if you want the plus it's an extra 3000 pounds and if you want the pro then it's an extra
six thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds to get to this trim that i have here the 619 pounds a
month there's something called care by volvo which is a special subscription where you can basically
rent the car for periods of time i think three months six months and longer periods as well and
it includes servicing and any fixed costs as well and you're not tied in on a three or four year pcp
or anything like that so it's an interesting way of doing it it's another option for this car this
car is very quick and that's because there's two electric motors one on the front and one on the
back they both have 204 horsepower and 330 newton meters of torque which when combined equal that
408 horsepower and 660 newton meters of torque so this is a fast car it also has a really good range
wltp is 256 miles and i've had no problems driving that and hitting those ranges which it suggests
are the wltp numbers this car has been very reliable and because it's got android automotive
in this car this is the closest to tesla's system that i've seen for knowing how far you're going
how much battery power you're going to need and it also tells you how long you need to charge to
get to your next destination android automotive is a huge plus on this car and you'll see it
when you get inside the car but now let's look at some design features of this car so
being an electric car it doesn't have a grill it has this covered over front plate i suppose you
could call it a grill i don't know what you'd call it and underneath the volvo logo there is a front
camera because this car on the twin pro has a 360 degree camera which i'll also show you when we get
inside it means from the design you can tell this is an electric car but it still looks very volvo
and it's got this sleek look for an suv even though this is not a small suv this is a
medium-sized suv and it's got a ton of space in the back of the car so there's a lot of
practicality in there and it's also very very comfortable to drive let's have a look now at
the headlight so this has got the famous thor's headlight data running lights and you can see it
looks like thor's hammer if you're into marvel you probably recognize that and this has been a volvo
thing for a long time and it's a very unique daytime running light that's very recognizable
when you see a car coming behind you you know it's a volvo so i love the light design these
of course are led and they're really really good lights for seeing in the dark this car
has a range of 256 miles wltp and that's thanks to the 78 kilowatt hour battery which is in this car
and it's great to see those battery sizes increasing and also the range increasing
is competitive with other cars in the sector this car is available in eight different colors
including solid metallic and premium metallic this is onyx black and it's a really nice
metallic but actually looks like it has kind of a crystal effect and you can see the flex
in it as this is the pro model this has 20-inch alloys the other models come with 19-inch alloys
this looks really good on the 20-inch a diamond cut and they're very imposing let's talk about
the differences in the trim so the plus which is 3 000 pounds gets front and rear park assist a
heated steering wheel a heat pump which is great when using the app and is much more efficient
power and heated driver memory seats and a power passenger seat got the pro which is an
seven hundred extra fifty pounds you get the 20 inch bespoke wheels harman corden
600 watt speakers are 12 of them power tilt and panoramic sunroof 360 degree and parking
cameras all of the driver assistant features and dimming mirrors now you're probably wondering
what is under the bonnet of the volvo xc40 is there a front koi fruit and the answer is yes
there is and under here when you open it up there's space for your type 2 charging cable
and any other accessories in actual fact it's decent size and you could probably fit a couple of
small bags in here how much space is there in the boot of the xc40 well it has an automatic tailgate
which is really cool and back here we've got 452 liters which is a lot of space there's tether
points and hooks so you can fit all your stuff in here and having that electric tailgate means
that in the winter when it's dirty you don't have to get your hands dirty touching the car
at all to put stuff in the back and that is a very handy thing i love an electric tailgate
so the next thing you might be wondering is how much space is there in the back of the xc40 well
there is a lot of space in the back of the xc40 i think you can see that here i've got plenty of
space both above my head and in front of me it's a very very spacious back of the car we got netting
on the inside of the seats here we've got quite small bins at the back here for the back doors
that's a bit surprising but there's still space there and we've got a usbs down there and we've
got heated rear seats as well which is unusual in most cars and also something which is really
cool about this car is these headrests fold down with the press of a button which looks
really really cool it's a really good place to be even with the door closed this is the interior of
the volvo xc40 recharge twin pro and all xc40s have a similar design inside the car that isn't
unique to this car but overall looking at this kind here it's a really really nice interior
these seats aren't actually leather they're a fake leather but they look like leather and they
feel really comfortable being the twin pro model these are electric and they're adjustable fully
electric both the passenger and the driver side so that's really really easy to get comfortable
and on this side you also have a memory function as well this car has a 600 watt harman kardon
sound system which has got 12 speakers and it has interior lighting it's very interesting interior
lighting though it's not like you would expect it's underneath here and it basically reflects
off this silver metallic design which goes across the dashboard so it has a really interesting look
can't change the colors though it's one color but that's a tiny little thing in what is a
fantastic interior it runs android automotive this is android just like on your samsung phone or your
pixel phone inside the car and that means full access to the google play store to google maps
to youtube music to spotify and to more apps as more companies start supporting android automotive
it means that you have a really great system and you have the google assistant in the car as well
okay google how many miles of range do i have left you can drive for about 198 miles with the
remaining charge isn't that cool you can ask the car how much range is left not only that obviously
google maps on the center console also means google maps in the driver's display something
that people have wanted for literally ever okay that's an exaggeration but for a very long time
having google maps inside the drivers display is a huge deal getting those directions that
you know are there and reliable on the driver display is a really really good thing and the
driver's display is really easy and simple to understand there aren't tons of different settings
you basically have a map view with your speed on the side or a view without the map if you don't
want the map it's just so so simple and easy to use but yet it's got all the latest technology
and features can easily be added thanks to updates to android looking at other things in the car here
we have a really really nice simple volume knob and a pause play button there we have our climate
control buttons here for the demisting of the windows and for forwards and backwards however
the actual climate controls are at the bottom of the touchscreen they're easy to use and they're
always there so even though they're not actually physical buttons you can do it very easily on
the screen plus you can also tell google okay google set the air conditioning to 17 degrees
got it changing the aircon to 17 degrees and it actually works unlike some voice
recognition systems because it's google okay google turn off the air conditioning
sure turning off the air con how cool is that controlling that with your voice is amazing
finding the range with your voice is amazing and it's google now one thing this card doesn't have
is car play or android auto now obviously it doesn't need android auto but it does mean that
you're going back to the time where you have to connect your phone with bluetooth to the car not
that you'd really care if i'm honest with you because if you've got google maps in the car
you're not going to need anything else from your phone anyway and the free streaming with youtube
and spotify the steering wheel of this car is really really nice the controls that volvo has
put on the steering wheel which operate with android automotive are really simple
you've got our cruise control up and down and set buttons and the distance on the left hand side
and on the right hand side you've got your menu and your music
play and pause your voice activation button if you don't want to use your commands like okay google
cancel and then you've got a button which lets you swap through the menus so the inside of this car
is super super super nice high quality very environmentally friendly and has everything
you can need in terms of technology in the volvo xc40 recharge twin pro so this car doesn't have
gear shift levers like some other electric cars you can't adjust the regen it is what it is
likewise there's no modes there's no economy mode there's no sports mode it's just get in and you
drive and the car does everything for you this is very much like the way tesla does things this
is not the way that most other manufacturers do things now is that better or not i guess
that's open to interpretation if you think it's better or not it's definitely easier there's no
doubt that driving the car not having to think about the mode helps i also think it probably
potentially encourages slightly better driving as well just because if you're not fiddling
around with all those different settings it's probably better and of course everything in
this car is controlled as you've already seen by google which means that you don't have to worry
again about touching the controls i can ask the car my range i can ask it to stop places
and you know it's going to be accurate it's not going to be sending you on a wild goose chase like
some other systems might do so there's already two great big advantages here the fact that
it's simple to drive and that you don't have to worry that the data you have for your navigation
is wrong and of course we've got the navigation in front of us here with google maps between the
dials in front of the car so that's another really useful thing the volvo pilot system for driver
assistance is really really good it keeps the car in the center of the lane it handles really well
it does wonder occasionally when you go around the corner because it's a bigger car
that is a bit more than on a smaller car but that's a issue any car has when it's larger
in size but it's very reliable and it's really easy to turn on and turn off the control button
in the middle the steering wheel on the left hand side is super super central and it's very easy to
tell what's going on you've got a steering wheel icon in the middle of the display and then it's on
it will go yellow and it will tell you it's on and if it's not yellow then it's not on in fact that's
it telling me now that i am over the middle of the lane so it works and it works very very well
this car has 408 horsepower and it's got two 204 horsepower motors on the front and back with 330
newton meters of torque that means it's a really fast car and even though it's big and it's an suv
the fact that it's able to move that quickly zero to 60 in 4.7 seconds is really impressive and you
can feel that torque and that power when you drive it when you try and accelerate when you
try and overtake this car actually surprises a lot with how fast it actually feels and that's
unusual electric cars do have the torque but this has the power as well unless we're talking about
high end like the cars which cost 70 80 000 or more in which case they have the power and the
tool this car is like i said not a inexpensive car as spec the car i'm in is about 56 000 pounds and
it has performance to match so comfortable very fast lots of great technology awesome
to drive this is a really good car i recommend anyone checks out what about my taking the car
score let's check on that what's my taking the car score for this volvo xc 40 recharge and this
model of twin pro well first of all let's talk about economy the environment it's electric it's
got great range it gets five out of five for that as far as driver assistance and technology inside
five out of five it's got android automotive google maps it can tell you when your charge is
running low and when to stop or stuff which should be standing on all electric cars the connectivity
this car gets five out of five it includes a sim card volvo includes free streaming and data so
you can use spotify or youtube music on android automotive you can access it with an app and see
where it is and track its status and check its charge and it's got everything you could want in a
modern car in terms of parking it gets four out of five it's got a 360 camera but it's a larger car
so it's a bit more tricky to park than a smaller car but it's got everything you could need there
in terms of comfort four out of five it's a really comfortable car i have to leave one point for
something like a limousine at some point and then of course we have the value so i'm going to give
this four out of five now i feel like that might be a tiny bit generous because obviously even at
its starting price of just under fifty thousand pounds this is a more expensive car than some
of the other cars i've had on the channel but i really think when you take into consideration all
of the features all of the technology the comfort the ride as a package this is still a four out of
five for value what does that give us overall that gives us 27 out of 13 the taking the car score i
really really like the volvo xc40 i really enjoyed driving it i strongly recommend this car go check
one out give this video a like if you found it useful subscribe for more and don't forget to
check out my infotainment guide and my video on android automotive you might find it interesting
you