Volvo C40 Recharge review

It’s the inevitable: a coupefied crossover from Volvo, a car surely required for it to keep pace with the big three Germans (Audi, BMW and Mercedes, duh) which the Swedes traditionally offer a chilled-out alternative to.

What’s possibly less inevitable is the fact the C40 Recharge is purely electric. Perhaps, with Volvo claiming 50 per cent of its sales will be EV by 2025, and 100 per cent by 2030, it ought not to be such a shock after all. But they’re surely wilfully losing a few sales by not simply transplanting the XC40’s many and varied engines (petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric) into its more svelte sibling.

Not least because the numbers are punchy for a relatively compact crossover. Namely 402bhp and a £55k price tag at the top end of the line-up, punting it firmly into the territory occupied by some big-hitting and already well-established plug-in SUVs.

Plus, that top end only sits at £55k for now because if you buy one in March 2024 you'll get a £7,500 discount. That's because soon enough this thing will be known as the EC40, while the electric XC40 Recharge will become the EX40.

More numbers, please.

There are two versions of the C40: Recharge and Recharge Twin. The former used to have a single motor on the front axle for front-wheel drive, but an update in 2023 shifted the motor to the back for rear-wheel drive. All in the name of efficiency, we're told. Anyway, the now RWD Recharge chucks out 235bhp and'll hit 0-63mph in 7.3 seconds, with official range rising to 302 miles from its unchanged 69kWh (of which 67kWh useable) battery.

And then there’s the Recharge Twin. Here an 82kWh (79kWh useable) lithium-ion battery feeds two electric motors, one on each axle for AWD. Another 2023 alteration was the spread of power here: unlike the previous 50:50 split, the car now delivers 148bhp from the front motor and 254bhp from the rear for a total of 402bhp and 494lb ft. It's the same powertrain you’ll find in upper class XC40 Recharges and Polestar 2s.

The WLTP range is 341 miles, while 0-62mph takes a frankly ridiculous 4.7 seconds (and feels even quicker). The top speed, as per all brand-new Volvos, is limited to 112mph.

In fact, the whole experience is built around ‘simplicity’. It’s the word bandied about when you ask Volvo quite where this car sits when the clearly related Polestar 2 occupies a similar corner of the market. The C40 is for those sick of being bombarded with a fistful of modes and a dizzying array of buttons when they climb inside a car.

Volvo’s even blanked off the starter button; instead you activate the motor(s) simply by sitting in the driver’s seat. That’s right, your bum now provides the ignition.

Cheeky. What does that mean for technology?

The whole car operates around a system developed with Google, although Apple CarPlay functionality is now standard too. Phone tech quickly outstripped that of cars over the years, and now even Volvo has ceded to the exponential rise of people simply mirroring their apps rather than relying on the carmaker's OS.

The car is drip-fed frequent updates so that the Google Maps nav is always up to date – right down to identifying which electric charging points are (or aren’t) occupied nearby. Most of the apps you love can be downloaded to the car, beaming your questionable Spotify playlists right into the booming Harmon Kardon stereo, but any especially Apple-y audio might just have to be pumped to the speakers through Bluetooth.

Which does seem a little lo-fi for the price tag. In twin-motor, top-spec form the C40 costs a weighty £54,801 (yes, eight hundred and one); or nearly £1,000 per month on Volvo’s ‘Care’ scheme which bundles in all the key maintenance stuff over its four-year term. Head to the Buying tab for more info.

The C40 looks great and has all the zen interior ambience you’d hope from a Volvo with a silent drivetrain. They say it’s been penned with design as its priority, and you can tell. There are plenty of neat touches, nearly all with a wholesomely sustainable story to back up their materials. You'll also have gripes, almost all of them typical of a slant-roofed SUV.

What holds the C40 back – for now – is that the standout, top spec dual-motor version is a very expensive car. Then again, you can hardly blame Volvo for pitching it above £50k given that the Skoda Enyaq iV Coupe commits exactly the same sin.

The arrival of more affordable specs has helped soften the launch car’s high price, although you’re still paying a lot of money for a car littered with interior bits found in the cheaper XC40. If you want a wilfully different electric crossover where practicality takes a slight backseat, Sweden already does a wholly convincing one of those, and priced from well under £50k too. It’s called the Polestar 2…