Volvo C40 recharge full review: An easy entry for first time electric SUV buyers

• What is the Volvo C40 recharge?
• Ride/handling
• Driving features
• Summing up
• In summary
• Volvo C40 specifications

C40 Recharge, Silver Dawn

A few weeks ago I wrote a first-impressions article on the new Volvo C40 Recharge – and promised a fuller report once I had the chance to drive one for a longer period on familiar roads.

Having now come off 10 days of local Melbourne and regional Victorian driving – here is that report!

What is the Volvo C40 recharge?

The Volvo C40 Recharge is the second full battery EV (BEV) from Volvo, built on Volvo’s new and highly adaptable CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platform.

This single platform is designed to carry all the smaller Volvo cars through to 2030 (and full electrification) by flexibly enabling all EV and ICE forms (BEV, PHEV, HEV and ICE) to be built on it, rather than having separate, dedicated ICE and BEV platforms.

The C40 shares this platform (and drivetrain) with both the XC40 and the Polestar 2 – as well as being used more widely within the Geely group, which now owns Volvo Cars, Polestar, Lotus and Proton.

If the Volvo C40 and XC40 BEVs appear the same from many angles, this is no accident. The C40 is a styling derivative of the XC40 SUV and shares much the same interior as well as the same basic dimensions and performance statistics as the XC40 Recharge.

While both are categorised as medium SUVs in Australian sales data, Volvo defines the C40 as a crossover. Also, while the C40 is exclusively offered in BEV form only, the XC40 also comes in BEV, PHEV and petrol forms.

Interior

Because the C40 roof line, from just before the B pillar, slopes down and through the rear hatch, visibility from the central rear vision mirror is limited. However the large side mirrors and ‘helicopter view’ on the centre screen from the four cameras when reversing help offset this.

Another feature of the C40 is the panoramic glass roof. It is non-opening and does not come with a retractable sunshade and, while adding a sense of airiness to the cabin (especially for rear seat passengers), it was letting in a noticeable amount of heat on a sunny, but only 23°C day. How it would cope on a 40C plus day is an interesting question. Hopefully, Volvo will offer a clip-on sunshade at some stage.

It is also worth noting that because the C40 is built on the CMA platform, it has a noticeably large central floor tunnel running through the passenger cabin.

Once you get used to the Nullarbor-like wide open spaces available in flat-floored EV platforms like Hyundai’s E-GIMP (as used to great effect in their Ioniq 5), it comes as a surprise to get into an EV-only model to find a large central hump. (The Polestar 2 has the same hump).

Given that the first petrol cars (dubbed ‘horseless carriages’) started life looking for all the world to be ‘carriages with the horses removed’, then it’s probably a matter of evolution and it will take time for some EVs to cast-off their ICE car shape and design roots.

It seems that Volvo, for cost and ease of production reasons, is prepared to keep (for now) that item in the name of build simplicity.

I thought I should cover-off on that ‘elephant-in-the-room’ before I got any further :-), but I should note that one advantage of that hump is that it allows more battery to be placed in the middle of the car and so bigger side crumple zones.

Volvo CMA platform for EV use. Image: Volvo

I certainly didn’t feel that the centre tunnel intruded into my space – although if you were a tall basketball player type, you might feel the need for some extra width in the front footwells.

The seating is certainly comfortable – although I should warn those who like their seating softer that the Volvo’s seats are on the firm side. The AWD test vehicle I had included electric height, back AND seat base tilt adjustments as well as fore and aft movement, along with tilt and reach adjustment in the steering column.

It would be hard not to get a good driving position with that amount of adjustment – although it took me a few days to work through the multitude of options this amount of adjustment offered to get it right for me.

Rear headroom for those under 1.8m tall is fine – but if you are carrying taller passengers, the XC40 Recharge might be worth investigating. instead. The middle rear seat is a bit more limiting – so a long trip with three large adults in the back might get a bit wearing for them, but for three children it should be OK.

Range

Sadly, the current Australian test standard (ADR 81/02) gives EV driving ranges equivalent to the old (and largely discredited) European NEDC numbers. Under ADR 81/02, the driving range for the 2WD C40 is 540km, and 500km for the AWD. However, like all NEDC range numbers, these are unachievable by all but the most dedicated “hypermiler.”

For normal EV drivers – the WLTP number is generally close-ish to what you would get around town, while the US EPA number is better suited to those who do lots of higher speed regional/interstate travel.

Thankfully, with the review of Australian fuel quality and emissions standards currently underway, we should get a test standard more like the new European or US EPA standards sometime soon.

On the road, we managed a trip to Wilson’s Prom and back from our home in Melbourne in one day, quite easily. Starting with an 88% charge, we arrived at Fish Creek with 47% charge remaining.

However, the range estimator was not impressed when I punched in a further drive to the start of the Prom national park. Solution? Plug the C40 into a Tesla destination charger over our 2hr lunch break … to have almost 70% available as we headed off again.

The trick with EVs is to forget about stopping on the way and waiting at a fuel station – you leave an EV at your stop to do its thing whilst you do yours.

(If you’re using a DC fast charger you can check on your charging while you are elsewhere: the apps by the major charger providers let you monitor the charge rate and level remotely via your phone. I have in the past found that feature very handy to time my last dinner mouthful before strolling back to the car).

Arriving back in Melbourne we had covered more than 400km and had 12% charge remaining. Yes, if we’d started with a full charge we would have made the trip without needing to do a top-up charge – but for shorter trips, I’m just not that organised!

On runs that, at worst, might need a minor top-up to make it to a faster charger – well, if all else fails there are a lot more power points in the world than fuel stations …

All-up, on a trip that was almost exclusively highway/freeway driving at 100km/hr, 420-ish km is a reasonable range and one that for most people is in excess of their daily (or even weekend trip) driving needs.

However, for its battery size the driving range is definitely not class leading. Given the C40 weighs in at 2154kg in AWD guise – the trade-off between weight and range appears to be kicking in.

Ride/handling

Car fashions today demand larger and larger wheels with ever lower profile tyres, and the C40 is not immune. The AWD C40 comes with 20 inch wheels and 40 rear, 45 front profile tyres.

This means there is little side-wall height to soak up road imperfections. Given our regional roads are more potholed than usual due to our ongoing excess rainfall, these gave the C40 wheels and suspension a bit of work to do.

At normal posted speed driving, the C40 rode firmly, but not harshly. Yes, you could feel the bumps and pitted road sections – but they were not intrusive enough to be annoying or give a ‘joggling’ feel.

On the other hand, the ride was fine on smooth freeway and suburban roads. Personally though, if I was doing a lot of driving in regional areas I would say ‘bugger fashion’ and choose a smaller wheel with higher profile tyres. (The 2WD comes with 19 inch wheels and higher profile tyres).

If you drive it sensibly, the handling is predictable and altogether unremarkable – as you would expect of a family car from Volvo. However, a sports car it is not!

Presumably for marketing reasons, Volvo have given the AWD a 0 – 100km time of 4.7 seconds. In a straight line that is scary-quick, but don’t expect it to handle like a Porsche Taycan if driven willingly on a windy road. The C40 doesn’t like being driven hard and you find yourself quickly slowing down again as it is truly no fun at all when driven that way.

Charging

The C40 has two battery sizes – the two-wheel drive coming with 69kWh and the AWD with 78kWh. These translate to slightly different charging times, as shown below.

Note: these are approximations and I have only included the main charging rates.

Driving features

It is here that you realise the Volvo is not only designed to be a first EV for people stepping out of their internal combustion engine (ICE) car – with Europe and many other markets hitting 20% and more new EV sales, it is dedicated to the ‘early majority’ tech adopter who just want their tech to work and not offer too many complications and options.

Rogers’ ‘diffusion of innovation’ bell curve. Image: Wikipedia Commons.

As such, it has eschewed the flexibility of selectable regenerative (‘regen’) braking levels, steering column regen selector paddles, driving modes, stored vehicle trip data and the like that many other EVs offer.

Instead, regenerative braking via the accelerator pedal is either in full one-pedal mode, or off altogether. (One-pedal mode is where the vehicle braking increases as you lift further off the accelerator pedal, bringing the vehicle to a full stop without touching the brake pedal at all. In this mode, the brake pedal only comes into play if you want to stop more quickly).

Turning that off means the car rolls freely when you lift off the accelerator and regen works on the brake pedal only.

Personally, I found this to be annoying – light regen on the accelerator is very useful on the highway to stop rolling over the speed limit when going down hills and the lack of selectability to me is an opportunity lost to take advantage of the additional features EVs can offer.

Pricing

Now that Volvo has added a two-wheel drive option to the XC40 recharge, pricing comparisons are easier to make – as shown in table 2. The simple answer is that you will pay a small premium if choosing the C40 over the XC40. ($2k more for the 2WD and $3k for the AWD).

Competitors

Unlike many categories of EV, this one is particularly well served with options. Interestingly, there are only three platforms between the 12 options I have listed.

The E-GIMP under the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, the CMA platform of the Volvo C40/XC40 and Polestar plus the Tesla one underpinning the Model Y (as well as the Model 3 – which I didn’t include as a competitor, although some may consider I should have).

Below are listed what I would consider to be competitor EVs along with their features and approximate on-the-road pricing:

Summing up

I would describe the Volvo C40 as ‘an easy car to live with’. With simple drive options to select from and docile road manners, it would appear to be ideally suited to those who want a comfortable (and prettier) car option for family duty and weekend trips for an up to four member, average height family plus their luggage and a trailer.

If you’re choosing between the C40 and XC40: it comes down to looks, whether you need that little bit of extra head height and load space in the rear … and are prepared to pay a slight premium for that look.

Personally, if I were buying one I’d probably choose the 2WD. Given it has effectively the same range with a smaller battery, a lower price, higher profile tyres and is (slightly) lighter in weight – it would seem the better value and more efficient of the two.

Oh – and back to my question in the first-impressions article re ‘would I consider driving it to Perth and back?’ The answer is ‘yes’. It is comfortable and easy to drive with 11kW AC charging and a faster DC charging speed, altogether making it that bit easier to do long trips than in my Kona electric.

On the other hand, it’s not one I would buy as I don’t need a car that big and heavy. (I prefer something smaller and more energy efficient … and I badly missed having regen paddles 🙂

In summary

Volvo C40 specifications

Seating capacity: 5

Boot volumes in litres (1 litre = 10 x 10 x 10 cm)

• Seats up: 413/489 l (to seat top/to roof)
• Seats down: 853/1205 l (to seat top/to roof. 1289 l for XC40)
• ‘Froot’ (front boot): 31 l

Dimensions:

• Overall length: 4440 mm
• Overall width:
  • mirrors in: 1873
  • mirrors out: 2034 mm
• Overall height: 1596 mm

Battery:

• Front-wheel drive: 69 kWh (67 usable)
• All-wheel drive: 78 kWh (75 usable)

Charging:

• 1 phase AC: 7.4kW
• 3 phase AC: 11kW
• DC: 136kW (FWD); 150kW (AWD)

Charge port location:

• Left side, rear quarter.

Energy consumption: (WLTP)

• 19.4 kWh/100 km (FWD)
• 22.2 kWh/100 km (AWD)

Kerb weight:

• FWD: 2001 kg
• AWD: 2154 kg

Drive configurations:

• Front-wheel drive (FWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD)

Towing:

• FWD: 750/1500 kg
• AWD: 750/1800 kg

Performance:

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