Volvo XC40 Recharge Single motor Plus (2024) Review
Having road-tested every conceivable version of Volvo's Recharge 40 series, we received the latest derivative of the Swede's green cavalry. Instead of doing the standard road test, we decided to live with it the way the average consumer would.
Slice of Life
In 2017 Volvo Cars announced that by 2019, every new vehicle that they launched would be electric. As of 2024, Volvo has kept to that promise, only launching fully green cars and the eventual phase-out of internal combustion engined cars in the lineup has significantly increased, leaving only a handful of fossil fuel burners still hanging about. The vast majority of models in Volvo's product offering are either hybrid or fully electric, and their ICE counterparts are soon to be gone.
Related: Volvo XC40 Car Reviews
One of the first models to get the full electric treatment was the Swedes 40 series crossovers, with the XC40 getting a single and twin motor setup in the P6 and P8 offerings and the C40 getting the same but with coupe styling. The XC40 model received a minor facelift and naming convention change recently so we wanted to see what all they had changed. Having tested all variants of the 40 series BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) and being suitably impressed with the Swede's offerings, we decided that instead of doing a standard fare road test on a drive train that we have already experienced multiple times, we would put the latest XC40 to a life test, driving it the way an everyday consumer would treat theirs.
Top 3 Volvo XC40 trims head to head: here’s our winner.
What's new?
Outside of the obvious name change from the P6 and P8 nomenclature to a very simplified Single, Twin or Plus badging, Volvo hasn't changed much. The exterior has received the standard tweaks, while the interior has been spiffed up with some styling additions and a simplification of switchgear. A big change comes in the form of an update for the iCUP((Infotainment and Connectivity Unit Program), which has further integrated the Google assistant for easy access to Google Maps and Google Play via the car's touch screen. The Volvo Car app can be used to remotely control the car to lock and unlock it, pre-adjust the cabin temperature, check the charging status and battery quantity, and automatically update the car's program via satellite using an over-the-air update.
The front and rear bumpers are more visually appealing, and to complement the rear of the car, tailpipe details are kept smooth. The 19" 5-triple spoke Black diamond cut wheels add a tougher and more powerful look to the XC40. A fantastic addition to the interior styling is the map inlays that are backlit at night and recessed into the dashboard and door cards. It took us a while to find out that these are true-to-scale embossed aerial maps of the Swedish city Gothenburg and its surrounds, even featuring neighbourhood names.
How do driving conditions affect EV performance?
Charge it!
Like most EVs, Volvo has three options when it comes to charging the vehicle in question. First off, you can hit up a DC public charger, which will, of course, cost a little more for the rapid charging convenience; these charge bays are not on every corner, usually only found in city centres and shopping malls. Secondly is an AC public charger; these are much more abundant and can be found just about anywhere: office parks, shopping centres, businesses, and airports. They may take somewhat longer to charge your car but are much more convenient. Thirdly, Volvo supplies a home charger for a normal household outlet. This type of charger takes significantly longer to charge the vehicle but is always available in your garage.
For the sake of consumer test, we avoided the more expensive and out-of-the-way DC chargers and instead made use of the AC charger outside our office and relied heavily on the home charger solution to keep the XC40 topped off and staving off range anxiety, which I am happy to say we did not experience once during our 7-day test.
Range experience
The XC40 was delivered to our office with an effective range of 76%, we topped off to the optimised level of 80% with the AC charger. The drive home is a distance of 62km, which is done through heavy traffic with plenty of stop-start. We arrived home with a range of 62% remaining, able to sustain the charge with the use of "regen" braking in traffic. The vehicle was then topped off overnight with the use of the home charger bringing the charge back up to 80%.
The trip back to the office the next was once again conducted in heavy rush hour traffic seeing us arrive with 58% of charge. We once again connected to the AC charger and topped off during the day course of the work day to 80%. The return journey saw us arrive back home with 64%, the "regen" proving to be the main reason for a sustained charge.
It was time to experiment a bit, and we chose not to use the home charger overnight, arriving at the office the next morning with 38% of the charge available. We connected to the AC charger and topped off to 80% again. We arrived home that evening after sitting in some terrible load-shedding traffic, with 52%, plugging in and fully charging to 80% overnight. The next day would see us take on the commute to the office, arriving with 63% and NOT making use of the AC charger. We arrived home that evening with 28% charge remaining and employed the home charger to charge back up to 80%. The remainder of our week's commute was done only by using the home charger to top off the XC40, simply plugging the car back in every time we arrived back from a school run or shop visist.
At no point during the week in which we experienced scheduled load shedding at both the home and office did we have any fear of running out of charge for a journey. Management of charge times and lengths is a simple task that can become a part of your daily routine, such as charging your cell phone.
#ElectricCarChallenge: Volvo XC40 P8 Recharge battery test
Family life
The XC40 is one of those pretty amazing vehicles that just manage to slot into family life very well. With three teenagers in highschool, each having their own school activity that requires everything from hockey sticks to pots and pans, the XC40 takes it all in its stride. With 452l of boot space available in standard trim, you can expand that to 1,295l if you fold the rear seats flat; the XC can handle the ins and outs of daily family life, trips to the shops, the school run and even a breakfast run with a social group, with ease.
Teenagers aren't exactly well-known for sharing their space voluntarily, but with the XC40 rear passenger room, it's more than ample for two young ladies and their gear to have plenty of space to move around and enough USB slots to charge phones and tablets.
Alfa Romeo Tonale vs Mini Cooper Countryman vs Volvo XC40: Which one has the lowest running costs?
Model and Price
| Volvo XC40 Recharge Single Motor Plus | R1 108,000.00 (as tested) |
*Includes a 5-year / 100,000 km vehicle warranty & 8-year 160,000 km battery warranty + 5-year / 100,000 km full maintenance plan
Audi Q2 vs Volkswagen T-Roc vs Volvo XC40: here's our winner
Verdict
The Volvo XC40 Single Motor Plus is a simple, no-frills, no-fuss EV that suits the modern suburban family perfectly. Smart management of the charge will see you cover hundreds of kilometres and bypass queues at fuel stations the night before fuel price increases. It's not expensive to run in terms of charge if you can avoid the DC charger stations. It just works. Our test is a plausible middle ground wherein there is a long harsh commute but also easy access to charge points and simply proves that EVs can and do work quite well in South Africa; it is just that pesky initial purchase price and depreciation.
What are the fastest-charging electric cars in South Africa?
