Volvo XC40 Recharge: A Cost-Effective and Reliable EV Crossover with Practical Features

Look, that looks good. Cost-effective, TCO very low, reliable, and practical. Don’t know how precise the GOM is of a Volvo, but 344km is enough for Groningen each day to and from. If things like regeneration, 3-phase AC charging, and further operation (climate, windshield wipers) + infotainment (Android Auto/Apple Carplay) are fine, then everything is fine, I think.

Loading capacity is a bit low, but that is at most a problem during the holidays, and not even very insurmountable.

I do hope that, like Hyundai, they also use this chassis for a more aerodynamic model, because if there is one thing that EVs are good at, it is clearly communicating HOW much energy transport costs, especially if you compare it to something like baking a piece of meat, your heating, or something else. An EV is always more economical than a petrol car (after all, a liter of petrol has about 9kWh of energy potential, but an EV goes further than an ICE comes per litre), but this is still not an aerodynamic monster.

Must admit that my previous car, the Ioniq Electric (now driving the successor) was really a ‘wonder thing’ in terms of efficiency. But the market wants SUVs, so it “starts” there, despite all the disadvantages of the form factor (and then fortunately this is actually a crossover and not a real SUV, those things are even more dangerous!!)