Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin AWD Ultimate

Holy heck this thing is quick!

The pure electric XC40 Recharge Twin has a 78kWh lithium-ion battery and two 204hp electric motors giving a combined total of 408hp, and all-wheel drive. This means that with 660Nm of torque it will propel you to 60mph in just 4.7 seconds, and will keep going until you reach 112mph.

Of course it isn’t all about the speed, driven carefully WLTP figures suggest it’ll manage up 257 miles between charges,. However, in my experience a full charge (90%), got me 170 miles, but I’ll come back to that at the end of the article.

On the road

Ignoring the fact that it’s a sub 5-second car, and that overtaking can be addictive, the Recharge Twin offers a relaxing drive, and feels more like a long distance cruiser than a rocket-ship. That said, you can certainly have fun throwing it around corners as the AWD offers so much grip. It’s hard not to go a bit daft, but at around 2,650kg you get the impression it would rather you be a little more sensible.

With no engine noise you will notice some mild wind buffeting from around the door mirrors at motorway speeds, plus a low level of road noise from the tyres. Saying that, it isn’t that different to what you’ll experience in any other EV. The sound system is rather good, so turning it up a few notches separates you from whatever’s going on outside.

The fact that I didn’t make any notes about its steering and braking tells me that all was well and it didn’t cause me any concern! What I mean by that is it handled just as would have expected it to.

Off road

Yes it’s AWD, but on the odd dirt covered lane I drove along it again gave me the impression that it rather I didn’t. This surprised me as being weighty it absorbed potholes on-road rather well, despite being on 20” wheels, but on cobbles and dirt not so much.

With twin motors it performed well on the soggy field behind my house, usually wet grass is the nemesis for 4x4s, but it did rather well.

On the Volvo website is shows the Recharge having Hill Descent Control that offers controlled descents on steep, rough and slippery roads that operates from 5 to 25 mph. However, I couldn’t figure out how it worked on the press car.

Interior

The interior is typical Volvo, and by that I mean neat, minimalist and well screwed together.

The seats are comfortable, both front and rear, and the elevated driving position offers a good view of the road ahead, helped further by relatively slim windscreen pillars.

A digital instrument panel is standard and is crisp, clear and very easy to read.

What’s odd is that the dash doesn’t include a real-time range counter, just a battery percentage read-out. If you want to find out how many miles of range you have left, go to the Range Assistant icon on the infotainment screen. To give you an idea, 42% battery gives an indicated 90 miles of range.

You also need to prod the infotainment touchscreen if you want to adjust almost anything, including the heater controls, which is a bug-bear of mine. Apparently you can use voice commands instead.

As you would expect on a Volvo, the Recharge Twin came with both heated seats and steering wheel, both of which I had to turn down at times as I found them too hot!

When it comes to practicality it’s full of thoughtful details like a pop-out rubbish bin between the front seats and huge door pockets. Rear seat passengers have plenty of leg room, even behind 6-footers up front, and there are plenty of useful spaces like reasonably big door bins and cupholders in the central armrest.

In the back there's 452-litre boot space with the seats up, and 1,328 litres with the rear seats down. Being of square proportions it makes loading and unloading quite easy, and there’s also a large underfloor storage area that in reality should house at least a space saver spare - but there isn’t one the options list, which is shameful, really.

With no engine there’s 31 litres of extra storage space under the bonnet which is handy for storing the charging cables.

Conclusion

Let’s get some of my moaning out of the way first.

Living in a mid-terrace I don’t have a home charger, and with 26% charge left in the ‘tank’, I plugged it into my nearest InstaVolt, ‘cos I can’t be bothered with downloading apps. At 75p per KWH, it took me 1 hour 14 minutes to get it up to 90%, which cost me £39.64 and gave me and estimated 170 miles. I’m sure I could have got more miles if I’d switched off climate and so on, but I didn’t want to.

Of course, the cost of the charge isn’t a criticism of the Recharge Twin, but the range couldn’t even get me to Wales and back without another top up, which was a nuisance.

Another moan is that being AWD I was eager to take it along some mild green lanes, but having no spare tyre, just gunge, made me think twice about where I drove. Remember, the most common puncture you have whilst off the beaten track is a hole in the sidewall, and gunge won’t work on that. I’ve mentioned previously that a space saver isn’t on the options list.

It’s expensive too. The Recharge starts at £45,750 with the Ultimate topping £60k. Volvo expect that most owners would choose to take out a subscription instead of paying cash.

On a more positive note the Twin is a very nice place to wile away the hours, whether that’s driving, or sat tapping away on your phone or laptop whilst waiting for a charger to become free, or during charging.

It’s also a decent size - not too big, not too small, perfect for both city driving and long stretches. Despite my EV moan, the Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin is a practical and comfortable car to live with, with an amazing amount of acceleration and grip.

As you may have gathered, a full electric isn’t a vehicle that suits my needs, but at some point I’d love to get my hands on a petrol XC40 as the car itself was so much fun and offered so much practicality, I would even consider adding one to the Mud Life fleet.