2022 Volvo C40 Recharge Is a Sharp-Looking Swedish EV
Cars
Speaker 1: This is the Volvo C 40 recharge. This is Volvo's very first vehicle that is only powered by electrons. And if it looks familiar, that's because it's based off of the XC 40 recharge crossover. The only difference here is that this guy is a coop over that's right. Check out this sloping, coop like roofline I normally, Coovers not my favorite design aesthetic, but here it really works. Especially with this Fjord blue paint job. [00:00:30] And then every C 40 is gonna come with a black roof. And I just think it looks really, really good together, but where they really knocked it out of the park is this whole rear end, come over here. Let me show it to you. I love these L E D taillights that are segmented that go all the way up to the hatch. This spoiler here kind of covers up the hinges. Now you do lose a little bit of cargo space in the back because of this sloping roof line, but you know what? It's not that much. I think it's worth it [00:01:00] to look so sexy while you're driving and you can always get funky in the front.
Speaker 1: Now, the first thing you need to know about the C 40 recharge is that you just get in and drive. There's no ignition switch to push or keys to turn or anything like that. If it senses your butt in the seat, you are ready to go. Now, what I have here is a 78 kilowat hour battery, which holds enough juice for about 226 miles. I've got two electric motors, one on each axle, and together [00:01:30] they put out about 408 horsepower and 487 pound feet of torque. Now zero to 60 is in about 4.7 seconds. And that doesn't sound like it's really quick, but listen, I absolutely smoked a modified Infiniti, G 37 S off the line the other night. And it was really fun. So, yeah, it's quick enough.
Speaker 1: There aren't really any drive modes to speak of. There is an off-road mode, which is gonna calibrate the all-wheel drive system for slippery surfaces. But really this is [00:02:00] just a get in and drive. I can calibrate my steering feel. I like a little bit of a heavier steering feel, and I can set this car to have one pedal driving, which I love because I love the feel of just lifting and having all of that regen energy, just go right back into the battery. But of course the best part about driving an EV is that you just have all of this torque, like right under your right foot and you have it instantly. So I'm not gonna call this car at corner Carver or anything like that. But when you come out of these turns, you can just ease onto the throttle and all of that power [00:02:30] is right there waiting for you.
Speaker 1: And that's what makes it fun. The one thing I don't like about the Volvo C 40 though, is the rearward visibility is not that great. I mean, that window back there, just the way it's angled and the kickback of the spoiler a little bit, just kind of blocks my view when it comes to technology, I've got a nine inch screen here running Volvo's infotainment system. And, you know, at first I thought it was a little confusing, but now, and I've worked with it a little bit. I really like it. And I really like that. I've got Google maps here. So let's say if I want to go to, I don't know, Costco, [00:03:00] right. I can plug in Costco. And then it gives me my state of charge for when I get there. And then if it were a return trip, my state of charge coming back.
Speaker 1: So I really like having all that extra information. There's also places here, like I said, where I can dial in my region breaking or dial in my steering field. And I love having all of those options available to me right here. The only thing I don't like here, there's no apple CarPlay, hopefully that will come soon in an over the air update when it comes to advanced driver's aids. Yep. They are all here. Blind spot monitoring, Uhhuh lane, keeping assist. [00:03:30] Yep. It's here 360 degree camera. All of it is standard, including Volvo's pilot assist. Now I do like using pilot assist, especially in traffic because it kind of keeps the stress away, but it tends to lean a little bit towards the passenger side in the lane keeping. So I tend to turn that part off and just use the adaptive cruise control. I've got a black interior, but I have the Fjord blue inserts, which is great.
Speaker 1: I mean, blue interiors are way, way underrated. And it really gives this interior a lovely bit of pop. [00:04:00] The interior are really comfortable, but they are not actually vegan. They're just non leather. There are some animal byproducts in here. So if that is important to you just know they're not vegan, they're just not made out of leather. The inserts in the middle are really soft and smooth, but I don't like the bolsters. They just feel kind of like a, like a neoprene scuba suit. It's just not really my jam, but I do have contrasting stitching. And anytime you can have contrasting stitching in a car is a okay with me. Now I've got 226 miles of branch. That's not the most that you can get in an [00:04:30] electric vehicle, but it's a good amount. However, we're shooting this video. I know I'm gonna be driving back and forth a lot so we can get these shots.
Speaker 1: And then I've got a pretty long drive afterwards. So I'm gonna go see what kind of charging outlets I can find. Well, I found an electrify America station close to where we were shooting. Now. Here's the thing that station right there. It's not working that station right there. It's rated for 350 kilowats it's charging at 75. This one here is 150 kilowats and you know, what's great. [00:05:00] This can accept a charge of 150 kilowats. So let's plug in and see if we can get those electrons. Now you're charging speeds. Of course will vary with your ambient conditions right now it's probably about 80 degrees. I'm at about 53% of a charge. So it should be able to accept that full hundred 50 kilowats up until I have a state of charge of about 80%, but let's see what this machine's gonna give me 90, come on, come on. You can do it. You can do it. [00:05:30] Whoa <laugh>.
Speaker 1: So this is like the problem with having an electric vehicle right now. The good news is, is that I've got a lot of range here, right? 226 miles of range. And I have a level two charger at home. So I charged last night, I went from 15% to a hundred percent state of charge and it cost me about $27 on my home charger. So hopefully you're only gonna be using public chargers every once in a while. If you're gonna get an EV be sure that you get a home charger, [00:06:00] it's gonna make your life a lot better now as for the price of this bad boy. Well, it starts at right around $60,000, including destination. And I would tell you to visit your Volvo dealership, but you cannot because this guy is available just online.
