Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric 2021 Review

Just $190 separates the 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric from its nearest direct rival in the local market, the Mercedes-Benz EQA 250.

The Volvo is the more expensive of the two cars, but we’re tipping that eco-prestige buyers in the market for a small SUV will welcome the Swedish model’s added performance and longer service intervals.

For $76,990 plus on-road costs, Volvo also offers the electric XC40 with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and eight years for the battery, which essentially matches the cover for the Mercedes-Benz EQA 250.

There’s also eight years of roadside assistance for the Volvo, and service intervals go one better than the Benz – up to 24 months or 30,000km compared to 12 months/25,000km for the EQA.

As standard the XC40 EV features 20-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic sunroof, power windows/fold-in mirrors, motion gesture-activated power tailgate, keyless entry/start, dual-zone climate control, multifunction steering wheel, front/rear seating heating, leather upholstery and power-adjusted front seats with position memory for driver.

The high-resolution instrument cluster offers three selectable viewing modes and the infotainment system incorporates a Harman Kardon audio unit, digital radio, inductive smartphone charging, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Bluetooth, satellite navigation and a 9.0-inch portrait-style touch-screen.

Too much is arguably left to the Volvo’s menus in the infotainment touch-screen for adjusting the car’s configuration, ergonomically, to suit the driver. It’s symptomatic of a broader concern with the electric XC40 – designers being too clever for their end users.

Despite the best efforts of myself and a colleague, we couldn’t work out how to enable wireless CarPlay for my iPhone.

And the voice recognition activated through an icon in the touch-screen delivers American-accented prompts occasionally asking rather impertinent questions.

If you issue the instruction “enter an address”, it will struggle to decipher your Aussie accent and then tell you it’s unwilling to share the rent at your home address or some other jocular rejoinder. This is moderately amusing at first…

It’s best to cut through the whole “coffee, tea or me?” approach to interacting with the operating system and just issue a command: “Navigate to…” and the street address that is your destination.

One of our crew found the system’s response time to be very slow, compared with a similar set-up in his much more affordable Kia Cerato.

At times, the inductive phone charging tray failed to recharge my iPhone, posting an error message to the effect that an object was obstructing contact between the phone and the tray.

This wasn’t the case. In fact, the tray appeared to be loose and looked like it wasn’t seated properly in its mount.

Nor could I initially get the motion gesture system to raise or lower the tailgate until I physically applied my boot to the bum of the vehicle. It begs the question, which is more important to users: grubby trousers or mud-soaked grocery bags?

All this indicates that the Volvo is right at the cutting edge of ergonomic design. But it’s at risk of leaving some of us behind.

Is there anyone who remains unaware of Volvo’s long-held safety credentials?

ANCAP has rated the Volvo XC40 range five stars for safety, based on the organisation’s 2018 test protocol. That applies to all variants, including the zero-emissions 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric, which underwent additional testing too.

According to ANCAP, the XC40 has earned itself a remarkable 97 per cent score for adult occupant protection.

There is no shortage of driver assist technology, such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with detection for pedestrians, vehicles, large animals and cyclists, intersection collision, driver fatigue monitoring, lane keeping assist, adjustable speed limiter/adaptive cruise control, blind spot information, rear cross traffic alert, front and rear collision warning, run-off-road mitigation, rain-sensing wipers, emergency brake lights, 360-degree cameras and acoustic guidance.

In addition, the XC40 Recharge Pure Electric comes with airbags to protect the front seat occupants from frontal and side impacts, a knee bag for the driver and curtain airbags for all outboard occupants.

Child safety seats are mounted in the outboard rear seats by means of ISOFIX anchorage points.

The driver assist technology, like the infotainment operation, is sometimes confounding.

A previous user had enabled the car’s speed limiter by default, rather than the Pilot Assist necessary to enable the active cruise control. I couldn’t work out why operating the cruise control switchgear from the steering wheel was reducing speed markedly when I pressed the set button.

To change from speed limiter to pilot assist/adaptive cruise control required drilling down through the driver assist menu, which is not very convenient when the car is in motion.

Automatic high-beam assist is activated using a button in the end of the lights/indicator stalk on the left of the steering column. Unfortunately, with the stalk concealed behind the left spoke of the steering wheel, a driver new to the XC40 won’t find it quickly.

That was certainly the case for me, so my test at night proceeded without finding out how to operate this useful safety system.

Other brands activate this function by pushing the stalk away from the driver – in some cases requiring a second push – or with a separate button visible on the dash, in the case of Lexus cars.

In any case, the LED lights are very good on low beam, and there are dynamic cornering lights to enhance the excellent set-up.

Unlike the auto lighting system, Reverse AEB was tested – in my driveway. Backing the XC40 along the drive triggered the system – with a headache-inducing stop every few metres, even from a speed slower than walking pace…

The system can be disabled by pressing the camera icon in the infotainment screen and then pressing the ‘Reverse emergency braking’ button when that appears. That then allows you to turn the system off, which is handy if you’re a slack gardener who allows branches to overhang your driveway.

It’s not easy to find this means of disabling the system. It’s accessed through the camera system, not the separate safety assistance menu in the settings, where you might expect it to be.

You would have to be looking at the infotainment screen while backing to see it – but I back using mirrors and acoustic guidance.

How did I succeed in parking the Volvo in the driveway without knowing how to disable reverse AEB? I simply enabled the car’s off-road mode, which isn’t as fussy about backing over flora.

The manufacturer is on a winner with the powertrain in the 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric.

Two powerful electric motors – one for each axle – lend the little SUV performance potential on par with a V8-engined HSV.

We’re talking under five seconds for the 0-100km/h time here. Naturally, it goes without saying that practically anyone can flex the right foot and burst out of the gates to reach that speed.

The Volvo’s powertrain would lend itself equally well to larger SUVs or high-performance passenger cars, whatever the application. The motors do generate some whine, but they are exceptionally quiet at open-road speeds.

Like Mercedes-Benz with that brand’s EQC 400, Volvo has gone out of its way to sanitise any powertrain noise from the XC40, in contrast with other EV makers like Audi, Porsche and the mainstream brands.

On an open-road run at night, the XC40 consumed energy at the rate of 23.8kW/100km, which is better than the EQC 400, but not as efficient as similarly sized SUVs or passenger cars from Mazda, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia.

Much of that difference in efficiency is no doubt due to output from the motors and the all-wheel traction. All that said, the test figure was an improvement on the official ADR figure of 25.5kWh/100km.

Curiously, Volvo has done away with the traditional starter button and parking brake release. As soon as you enter the vehicle with the key in your pocket, the XC40 is ready to move.

All it takes is shifting into Drive or Reverse. It’s the same at the end of your journey too. Press the ‘Park’ button, open the door to leave, and everything switches off.

For all the grip provided by the contact patches of its Pirelli P Zero 235/45R20 tyres and its all-wheel drive system, the 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric is certainly tested by the impressive powertrain output.

The car’s passive dynamics are very good, but slightly overwhelmed by the abundant power and torque.

Occasional wheelspin and torque steer were evident when pushing hard through corners. But, overall, the XC40 is very safe, dynamically, with fairly precise steering that also happens to be responsive and communicative.

The chassis is set up to corner in a flat stance at speed, but the ride comfort is not necessarily what traditional Volvo owners would want, bordering on firm at times and inclined to crash through on sharper impacts.

The weight of the car relative to its footprint has some influence on the way the springs decompress with a thump when the road surface drops away suddenly. It’s a little jarring, but something you only notice at higher speeds, on rougher roads.

Most XC40 buyers can probably live with the fact that this is no Ford Ranger Raptor.

It’s an exceptionally quiet car at speed, with just a mix of light wind and tyre noise entering the cabin.

Even on coarse-chip bitumen roads in the country the Volvo rides very quietly, but sharper impacts (speed humps in suburban settings, for example) were accompanied by creaking from the front suspension.

Being a small SUV, the XC40 offers a hip point that nails it for access. Adults of average height and taller kids will just slide into the cabin. The front seats are very comfortable and well-shaped, featuring soft cushioning mixed with firmer support for the small of the back, and adjustable lumbar for those who need it.

Plush materials and attractive styling deliver a prestige ambience to the cabin.

The driver’s seat is located the right distance from the thick (leather-bound) steering wheel rim and the sports pedals for optimal control.

There’s enough feel through the brake pedal for the driver to bring the car to a soft stop. But heavy braking won’t faze the XC40 either, not with the big tyres and ventilated discs all round.

As noted earlier, I could not find a parking brake for the car, and presume that the Volvo designers decided drivers don’t need one.

The door bins in front are large enough to accommodate one-litre bottles, and there are plenty of storage and power recharging options in the XC40, including a deeper receptacle under the lift-up centre arm rest in front and what looks like a large, lidded smartphone holder between the two cup holders and the centre arm rest.

For powering portable devices or streaming music, there are two USB-C ports and a 12-volt power outlet in the front. One of the USB ports can transfer data, the other only recharges.

Rear seat accommodation is more than adequate for adults up to about 185cm tall, even with a panoramic sunroof overhead. The sunroof is operated by means of slider controls in the console above the rear-view mirror.

Adjustable vents, seat heating for the outboard seats and another two USB-C ports for recharging are all on-hand for the kids seated in the rear.

The seats are very easy to lower but a little heavy to raise back into position. There is a ski port in the rear seat, with a felt-like flap between the folding centre arm rest in the rear and the boot to reduce noise and heat transfer from the boot. It’s a good idea.

The boot itself is quite practical, with added storage under the floor, and a relatively high loading lip.

There’s no spare tyre for the XC40 EV, however, which likely reflects on electric powertrain components occupying the space there instead.

The Volvo was two days late reaching us, due to unscheduled repair work. That may explain the creaking from the front suspension.

We would have liked to have more time to become fully familiar with all the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric.

However, at its core the electric XC40 is a sweetheart – and it shouts that out loud and clear.

There are some oddball design elements, some ergonomic choices that I personally would prefer Volvo had handled differently.

But I also admit that the features I found irritating are those that buyers will either become accustomed to using within the first week – or they’ll never use them at all.

What’s in no doubt is the Volvo’s ‘EV’ value for money, whatever your purchasing criteria may be.

How much does the 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric cost?
Price: $76,990 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Two permanent magnet synchronous motors
Output: 300kW/660Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 78kWh lithium-ion
Range: 450km (ADR)
Energy consumption: 25.5kWh/100km (ADR)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2018)