It seems like just yesterday that Volvo announced it won’t sell gas-powered vehicles after 2030. Since making that promise almost three years ago, they’ve been busy: most Volvos you can buy today have a plug, and a raft of new models under Volvo’s new EX lineup are due out shortly. With this in mind, we snagged the keys to a 2024 Volvo XC40 Recharge to see how Volvo’s first shot at full electrification has fared over the years.
Having received a mild nip-and-tuck last year, the XC40 heads into 2024 mostly unchanged, at least visually. The XC40 has always been a comely cute-ute since it first launched in 2018, and last year’s subtly restyled front fascia — which it shares with the slopey-roofed C40 — keeps it fresh. As before, the only way you could tell apart the Recharge from gas-powered XC40s is the blocked-out front grille, the badge on the back, and the charge-port door. [Fun fact: on the Recharge, the charge port door is on the driver’s side. On gas XC40s, the fuel door is on the passenger side. —Ed.]
Inside, the XC40 Recharge keeps Volvo’s Scandinavian-chic ethos alive with a less-is-more approach. A nine-inch, portrait-oriented touchscreen flanked by vertical vents takes pride-of-place in the dashboard, augmented by a 12-inch digital gauge cluster … and that’s it. No Hyperscreen-this, no augmented-reality-that, no gesture-controlled-whatchamacallit. Instead, you get a blissfully gimmick-free environment emphasizing minimalist design, with top-notch fit-and-finish, numerous cleverly designed storage pockets, superb visibility all around, and heaps of space up front, out back, and behind the seats. The XC40 Recharge is well-isolated from wind and road noise, it rides well, the seats are the best, Jerry, the best in the business, and the inherent silence of an electric powertrain makes for serene commutes.
On tech, the XC40 was the first to debut Volvo’s Google-based infotainment system. How its aged is hit-and-miss; we’ve experienced hiccups and glitches in other Volvos we’ve reviewed, but we’ll grant that in our time with the XC40 Recharge, it didn’t skip a beat. There’s a bit of a learning curve to the interface, but if you’ve ever used a tablet at any point in your life, you’ll pick it up pretty quick. The only physical switchgear is a row of buttons and one (admittedly large, and finished in some very nice knurled metallic trim) volume knob below the main screen, but at least the climate controls stay on screen all the time. Oh, and Apple CarPlay is finally standard, but you have to plug in your phone.
Beyond the infotainment, our top-spec XC40 Recharge tester came equipped with all the driver and safety assists you could possibly want today, including a 360-degree camera, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, and much more.
For 2024, Volvo did fiddle with the powertrain. You can now get a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive configuration throughout the XC40 Recharge lineup; working with a 79 kWh battery pack, this new base setup is good for 248 horsepower and up to 472 kilometres of range. Our tester had the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup. This means a slightly smaller battery pack and slightly less range — 75 kWh and up to 409 km, respectively — but a big bump in power and acceleration. It’s good for a whopping 402 horsepower and 486 pound-feet of torque, and Volvo quotes a zero-to-100 km/h sprint in a stonking 4.8 seconds. This cute-ute is a sleeper; you simply don’t expect it to shoot off the line as fiercely (and hilariously) as it does. The smiles are worth the sacrifice in range.
Ah, about that. Despite the numbers Volvo officially quotes, not to mention the fact that our XC40 Recharge comes with a heat pump, our real-world experience yielded a big surprise. Look, we get that the cold affects EV range, and with temps hovering around the freezing mark, the 310 kilometres the XC40 promised on-board was still plenty. But using it like a normal car — climate control in auto and around 22 degrees Celsius, and not shying away from the heated seats, heated steering wheel, and defroster — the best we managed was 236 km on a full charge. We expected a hit in range, but not that much.
Easy access to a charger eases our XC40 Recharge’s mildly inconvenient range. We saw a full charge from 15 per cent in about eight hours hooked up to the Level 2 charger, and the XC40 Recharge supports Level 3 fast-charging. Here, Volvo says you’ll see a 10-to-80 zap in 37 minutes at a rate of 150 kW, but we all know public charging can often be hit-and-miss. The best we could do was a zero-to-70-per-cent charge in about an hour, at a 50 kW station. Bottom line: you’ll need at least a Level 2 charger at home, or the office, to comfortably live with an XC40 Recharge, especially in winter.
On price, the XC40 Recharge ranges from $63,745 for the base, single-motor, rear-drive configuration, all the way up to $78,545 as-tested for our fully loaded, dual-motor tester. It’s not exactly pocket change, but it’s in-line with competitors like the Audi Q4 E-Tron, Genesis’ electrified GV60 and GV70, and the Tesla Model Y.
The EV landscape has evolved since Volvo first announced it’s going electric by the end of the decade, but the XC40 Recharge remains relevant. It’s a thoughtfully designed cute-ute with a flexible interior, the kind of acceleration that’ll make you giggle, and as long as you have easy access to a charger, it’s pretty easy to live with. A lot can change between now and 2030, but if the 2024 Volvo XC40 Recharge is any indication, Volvo certainly has their ducks in a row.
