Welcome to my look at the Volvo C40 Recharge. Does Volvo make a decent electric car? Let’s find out.
Nearly every automaker has an electric car to offer you these days. Volvo says half of
its sales volume will be full EVs by 2025, and by that year, it’ll have a million electric vehicles
on the road. Very ambitious of those Swedes. The companies first BEV was the XC40 Recharge. Here’s
number two, the C40 Recharge. Yeah, the X has been dropped. So has the squared off behind. People
aren’t buying sedans like before but apparently, they still like the roofline. Volvo makes it easy
to settle on options, there aren’t any on the C40. It only comes fully loaded at around 60
thousand dollars including delivery. That’s before any state or federal tax credits, it’s eligible
for Uncle Sam’s $7,500 offer. The only upcharge is fancy paint and these days, maybe dealer mark up.
As you might expect, the C40 Recharge is built on the same architecture as
XC 40 Recharge but it’s not just a new back end. Designer’s say that essentially,
everything reward of the C pillar is unique to this car.
I’m in Palm Springs, CA for a Volvo event where these are the gas prices. Besides being easy on
the fuel budget, electric vehicles are sold as environmentally friendly, no tailpipe emissions.
The folks from Gothenburg go one green level higher. Carpets and fabrics are recycled PET
bottles, so that Mountain Dew bottle you tossed last year might be in here. Is The Dew a thing
in Sweden? Or Belgium where this is assembled? Anyway, this is a leather free zone, apparently
the term “vegan” is not accurate since even the synthetic stuff includes animal by-products.
C40 is built on the same Compact Modular Architecture as Polestar 2.
The dual-motor system is the only version sold in the US,
making a total of 402 horsepower and 487 lb-ft of torque to move 4,800 pounds (or 2,177 kilos
for everyone else in the world). The lithium-ion battery is rated at 78kWh, 75 of them are usable.
C40 is one of those cars that doesn’t have an on off switch. Your butt turns it on.
There is no multispeed transmission. Higher regeneration drag is a menu-selected choice,
the steering effort can be firmed up here too.
EVs are judged on their range. C40 Recharge’s EPA rating is 226 miles, 50 less than Ioniq5.
As for charge speed-
Using a Level 2 home charger this car will charge from 0 to 100% in about eight hours.
On a Level 3 DC fast charger, which is your commercial public fast charger,
it will go from 0 to 80% in about 40 minutes. It’s capable of taking in 150 kW
It’s not as fast as Tesla or the 800-volt system in Ioniq5 and EV6,
Swedes won’t mind the extra Fika time, Americans are in more of a hurry.
By their very nature, electric vehicles feel faster than they are because of the
great low-end torque and this has a lot of power. Man, it moves off the line.
The sprint to 60 miles an hour is a rapid 4.7 seconds according to Volvo.
I think that’s conservative.
It really pushes you into the back of the seat, this is not a sedate Volvo
Visibility is great going forward, not so hot rearward because of the small window.
These rocket booster ports are functional aero according to Volvo.
No rear wiper could be problematic in Seattle.
One pedal driving is definitely a thing in the C40 Recharge.
Lift your foot off the throttle and it’ll slow, not dramatically,
but enough so that you don’t really have to hit the brake pedal in city driving.
It’s much like the Tesla Model Y dynamic. And the
pedal transition from recuperation to feathering in the physical discs
(something that Tesla doesn’t do) is excellent. Volvo does great brakes, it’s a safety thing.
Some EVs struggle to hit the EPA estimate, an issue if this didn’t achieve the 226-mile rating.
That is not best in class range but
it’s 85° out and I am definitely seeing that figure. Truth in advertising.’
The cluster offers up info on power output and regeneration. I’m on target
for 250 miles by day’s end, driving enthusiastically and in these hills.
C40 Recharge is no Porsche Taycan GTS when cornering hard. But it’s entertaining.
My old Volvo XC 70 was like driving my grandma’s sofa, it was soft and floaty.
This? This is pretty good, obviously the lower center of gravity comes from the heavy
batteries in the floor but the suspensions is tuned just about right for this vehicle.
It’s fun to drive, these roads are really twisty.
A Volvo executive told me its cars are meant to soothe after a hard day’s work. Mission
accomplished. For a decompression chamber, this suspension is a solid sporty setup.
By their very nature electric vehicles are quiet and this one is no exception.
There is a little bit of road noise coming off the tires but
it’s not bad. Could be a good road trip or except for the charging issue
To be fair, it’s power take rate is similar to ID.4 and Mustang Mach-E. EV6 and Ioniq5 need
a 350kW commercial terminal for ultra-fast charging. Not as common as 150kW stations.
Back to the cabin. In addition to the eco green materials, Volvo throws in a splash of blue,
a trendy interior color. There are Volvo-style points in here, no cut and sewn action on the
instrument panel, but materials are all top grade. These feel as solid as the chassis. Door
pockets are enormous and the felted material keeps rattles down. There are some clever storage spots
here too. The CMA platform isn’t a fully flat skateboard so the cockpit isn’t as airy as Ioniq5
and Mach-E if that’s your thing. The orthopedic seats continue Volvo’s tradition of being
extremely comfortable and supportive. This trim, on its own, looks great. I’ll go to Volvos footage
to show you it’s an abstract topographic map of Sweden’s Abisko national park. And at night,
the ambient backlighting is especially cool. Recharge doesn’t use the Volvo Sensus user
interface. This one is powered by Android Automotive and largely uses casual voice
prompts which are pretty impressive. You just use the prompt “hey Google” I need to charge the car.
There are ChargePoint charging station 0.1 miles away. Want to navigate there? Sure.
No abundance of buttons but turning on the heated seats or steering wheel is easy to do by voice.
This is the future kids. Volvo claims that Apple CarPlay will be added in an over the air update.
As expected, this runs Google Maps and apps like Spotify can be downloaded.
The screen with excellent touch response might seem small but it’ll
appeal to those that hate the glued-on iPad look that Tesla and Mach-E have.
Evil twin couldn’t make it Palm Springs. he’s on the no-fly list as you might imagine so I’ll
be assessing the backseat. I’m sure that his big concern is the sloping roofline.
Headroom? It’s not bad, that much. Knee leg and foot room are actually pretty generous.
The cushions though are a little bit on the low side, so thigh support is average and
the door openings a bit on the small side if you’re always getting car seats in and out.
Door pockets are deep, a little on the small side. Nice that kids won’t fight over these. Vents?
Check. Power to charge phones? Check. And heated seats. There’s a fairly sizable spine
running down C40 so that cuts into foot room if you put three people back here.
Honestly keep it to two, all right? People will be much happier that way.
As for design, Volvo designer Eric Beak offers a brief tour.
As you can see this clear color breakup between the body and the cabin makes this cabin quite
compact and tight. We have a really dynamic and powerful body side, it’s creating really good
proportion of balance. This is actually the one of the highlights of this car’s exterior because
we no longer use conventional air intake. We don’t need it for electric cars. Our homework
for ourselves was, how do we make an attractive front without using the material design elements
that we used to use. And this is a great example of that, we cover the front grill and give it
a really good aerodynamic efficiency. Another area that I can talk about here is this animated
digitalize segmented taillamp which actually shows our effort to the step into the digitalized era.
Like the choice of meatballs or fishballs at IKEA, there’s the sleeker look of C40
or the traditional XC40 roofline. I’ll point out that these wheels are lovely,
and that a closer look has lots for the eye to discover all over the car.
A quick mention of safety. Volvo seems to have de-emphasized that in it’s marketing lately,
but says it remains its highest priority. I’m using the company’s video since crashing a C40
in Palm Springs is frowned upon. It’s automatic emergency braking includes pedestrian, cyclist
and large animal detection. It has solid adaptive cruise and lane keep assist. Its collision energy
management in the best in biz. Notice that nothing behind the windshield pillar deforms?
It includes a high strength steel cabin cell that doesn’t crush in roll over situations. Or
when dropped 30 meters from a crane. You want to be in one of these if you drive off a bridge.
Truth be told I saw Costco while I was driving here but these events are so jampacked, and I
have so little time I can’t stop. So the trunk area? We’re gonna have to do that by the numbers.
But first I want to show you that the load floor with storage underearth has
skills. A small slot lets you do this, so groceries bags are less apt to slide around. Hey,
this machine has punch, that’ll happen. No spare though. For you skiers out there,
this keeps them safe. And anything racked on the roof raises the drag coefficient, lowers range and
causes wind noise. Seats raised there’s up to 17.3 cubic feet, about 3 less than the XC40
Recharge and 10 less than Ioniq5. It’s easy to lower them from the back not much of a reach.
All dropped, max cargo room is 44 cubic feet. There is a solid security cover,
sometimes those don’t fit in the boot. No need to leave it in the garage. And there is a funk, it’s
not nearly as big as Mach E or Model Y at point 7 cubic feet. Let’s go to Red Light Green Light.
Green Light- Safety is a given so lets move on to the power and deep torque that the C40
Recharge offers. Always high on my list. So are the excellent driving dynamics that
are tailored to the real world. The sustainable cabin materials keep plastic out of the landfill
and have a premium look. People like the fastback style, always good to have design options.
Yellow Light- The stylish rake of the roof cuts into the practicality compared to the
boxy backend. The cabin has Scandinavian style, the spine of the CMA platform cuts
into its usability. The Android Automotive interface is exceptionally
smooth with terrific voice recognition, some OTAs with CarPlay are still needed.
Red Light- Marketing the 226-mile range (that Volvo, like Porsche, seems to be lowballing)
will be a tough sell at the 60-thousand-dollar level. Mainstream competitors like the Hyundai/Kia
offering have a faster commercial charging speed. The semi-autonomous driving tech that
I didn’t really cover is good, just not up to the standard set by GM’s Super Cruise.
Vehicles are never bought for a single reason. Sometimes a car hits a buyer in
their gut. The whole of the C40 Recharge has a gravity about it that’s appealing.
C40 recharge is quick, comfortable, fun to drive, it’s practical. The only real issue I see with it
is the range, it’s not up to what the others in class have. The others don’t have the
Volvo-ness which is something. This is kind of a neat vehicle.
Buyers that like Volvo’s 40 Recharge vibe now have two to choose from. The traditional XC,
or the progressive C. They add to growing variety that EV shoppers have now.
Choice. It’s always worth getting amped up about.
To stay fully charged, and caffeinated, Volvo has announced it’s installing some
60 ChargePoint DC Fast chargers at 15 Starbucks between Seattle and Denver.
If people like it, the program will be expanded. Volvo owners get free or reduced rates.
I might give that coffee run a try. Again, full disclosure, I attended a Volvo
sponsored drive and used its exterior running footage plus ate the food that was provided.
But I’m all about giving you good information, I’m not impressed by nice hotel rooms. An observation
that might not be useful when buying a car? At these events, corporate culture seeps though in a
big way. Some automakers load up on disingenuous marketing, others shoot pretty straight. I’ll
put the Volvo folks squarely in the sincere camp. The company seems to walk to the talk.
Sustainability is not something that we chose just to follow the trend, because sustainability is
coming from deep in the heart, in the blood veins. That makes our cars to be more
better for the environment and for people more longer amount of time.
So sustainability and effort to be sustainable, it’s not been just recent,
it’s been a long time. So it’s hard to find why because, it is what we are.
It will be interesting to see how it does now that the IPO has launched. Without diving
deep into the business side, it should give Volvo significant autonomy from majority investor Geely.
This is the end and even though I’m on the road I’ll still give you a fun fact, though I
might have told you these already. The Volvo logo? That’s called the iron mark and it’s because it’s
the symbol for iron, it’s slightly redesigned now. And the Volvo name means “I roll” in Latin because
the company got its start as a ball bearing company. And one more fun fact, on these event‘s I
am always the last person in because I’m shooting all day long to give you good information.
Last night’s dinner was at 6:30, I sauntered in at 7:30, the catering people just hate me.
Well, there you go, thanks for watching. Remember to subscribe, follow me on Twitter I’m really
active there and if you have a question leave it in the comments. That’s Driven I’m Tom Voelk