Volvo has opened order books for its first battery electric vehicle, the XC40 Recharge Pure Electric P8.
Initial deliveries of the compact SUV, which will be available exclusively in R-Dynamic trim, are expected to begin in early 2021.
Prices start from £53,155, which means it will not be eligible for the UK plug-in car grant following changes made in the government's budget in March.
The new policy excludes all cars costing more than £50,000 from the grant. They no longer incur the premium rate tax, meaning drivers will save £320 per year for five years after the initial year of registration, but that still leaves buyers £1900 worse off than under the old system.
The new EV will join the petrol and plug-in hybrid variants of the XC40 and becomes the first of five fully electric models that Volvo will launch in the next five years. The firm is aiming for EVs to account for half its global sales by 2025, with the rest featuring a hybrid powertrain. Those five electric cars, along with plug-in hybrid models, will carry the new Recharge branding.
Volvo has also outlined plans to reduce its lifecycle carbon footprint per vehicle by 40% by 2025, as part of a long-term goal to become climate-neutral by 2040.
Volvo launches Recharge electrified brand, sets bold carbon emission targets
The four-wheel-drive XC40 P8 Recharge features two 201bhp electric motors, one mounted on each axle, that combine to offer 402bhp and 487lb ft of torque. That enables it to achieve 0-62mph in 4.9sec and a governed top speed of 112mph.
Power is drawn from a 78kWh underfloor battery, with Volvo citing a WLTP-certified range of more than 248 miles. Charging is available through an 11kW AC charger or a 150kW DC fast-charger, which the firm says can deliver an 80% charge in 40 minutes.
The vehicle largely retains the exterior and interior styling of the conventional XC40, albeit with the addition of a new sealed fascia in place of the traditional radiator grille for the combustion engine. The model also gets Recharge branding and other minor design tweaks, while the charging port is located on the rear pillar of the car in the same place as a traditional petrol cap.
Built on the same Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform as the regular XC40, the Recharge version retains largely the same dimensions with a length of 4425mm and a width of 2034mm. Because of the underfloor batteries, the XC40 Recharge has a slightly reduced ground clearance of 175mm, compared with 211mm on the regular model.
Join the debate
Thekrankis
Hugely desirable.
A car that I find very very tempting....
Hughbl
It has gained over 600 kilos
so it'll be interesting to hear how it drives.
Windy57
Excess power
I apologise for what some of you may think a stupid comment, but does a medium family crossover need to have over 400bhp; nearly every new EV seems to be excessively powerful - does every car really need to do 0-60 in less than 7 seconds?
Tycoon
It has a frunk yessss
rkanaga
Excess power
The apparently excess performance of many EV's is a consequence of the battery size. You need a battery of a certain capacity to give you range, and with that comes the instantaneous current delivery and hence performance, the actual motors are not the issue. It's a bit like if a petrol car's performance was dictated by the size of its fuel tank rather than its engine!
The flip side of that is that massively fast EV's automatically have better rangem hence why the new tesla Roadster is claimed to have a massive range, it was not a primary goal but rather a consequence of the battery needed to deliver the desired acceleration.
The other thing about EV's is that there really is no way to engineer a light pure EV with present battery technology and so they are all heavy and the tendancy is to counter this weight with increased power by adding yet more batteries, a sort of never ending spiral power arms race. Hence all of the supercar EV's are heavy and massivley powerful (compare this with the previous ICE supercars that were primarily light; think F40 etc.)
Maybe performance cars will segment into massive, heavy hypercars (Rimac, Lotus etc), wildly fast performance saloons and coupes (Taycan, Tesla Model 3) and lightweight petrol drivers cars (Caterham, Lotus Exige, Alpine etc)
It's hard to see where traditional supercars (488/ 911 etc) fit into this scheme as modern supercars are neither light enough to outdrive an Exige, nor powerful enough to beat the new era of performance saloons/ coupes (Taycan).
Merod
Authors
I hope you’re already a jurno - because if not Autocar need to hire you. A much more insightful few paras than the article itself.
Aussierob
Spot on rkanaga
And thank you for your analysis which is largely correct.
I would, however, point out that at less than 1300kg the BMW i3 proves that with a dedicated platform, rather than an electric version of a combustion car, it is possible to get reasonable range without gargantuan proportions.
Robbo
Hughbl
Less is more
Great comments Robbo and rkanaga.
For me the most disappointing thing about the current generation of EVs is the weight. I suspect in a few short years they will look like dinosaurs (just a different species to the older, ICE-powered types).
There was a recent article about the JLR SVO team making the I-Pace faster - I'd rather they came up with clever ways to make it much lighter and designed higher density batteries so it had better range. By virtue of which, it would be faster too. Colin Chapman would like that too.
Citytiger
Aussierob wrote:
The i3 is that succesful BMW have binned it and are not replacing it, its a clean sheet design thats a dangerous compromise, the rear doors are a disaster, and they dropped the only version that made a bit of sense, the REX.
The i3 has a real world range of about 140 miles (XC40 - 240), its also only 2WD and significantly less powerful and slower, despite having a larger capacity battery 125 or a 135kw compared to the 78 of the XC40.
Oh and its not an SUV, which apparently is very important to some buyers who prefer the high up seating position.
289
glad you explained.....
.....that rkanaga, because like Windy 57, I have been pondering the need for overpowered electric cars for a while.
To my non scientific mind 200bhp would be more than enough....thereby doubling range!
Crazy acceleration times arent smart or needed, and if we are supposed to be green in our day to day lives high power EV's will increase tyre and brake degradation...(both polluters) and increase road surface wear rates into the deal. The weight of this thing is ridiculous compared to the ICE version, clearly a law of diminishing returns, and of course again increasing Tyre and brake wear, plus need to recharge.
Clearly wrong!
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