Good news if you’re looking to lease a fully-electric Volvo XC40 Recharge or C40 - because both cars have just been handed a significant boost in range.
The XC40 Recharge is a compact SUV to rival the Audi Q4 e-tron and Mercedes-Benz EQA, while the C40 Recharge (below) is similar to its XC40 sibling but gets a sloping, more coupe-like rear end.
Thanks to new powertrain configurations - which includes rear-wheel drive variants for the first time -Volvo says customers can benefit from around 40 extra miles from a single charge.
There are also improvements to charging, too, which is another welcome bonus.
So, here’s what you can expect.
The outgoing XC40 Recharge ‘single motor’ is driven by the front wheels.
But Volvo has decided to change this to a rear-wheel drive set up.
A 69 kWh battery remains the same, but thanks to better battery cooling tech, the model can now travel an extra 22 miles between charges - up to 286 miles from 264 miles.
It’s a similar story with the C40 Recharge single motor, with range boosted by 24 miles - up to 296 miles from 272 miles.
With both of the above variants, a 10-80 per cent battery charge takes around 34 minutes using a 130kW DC public charger.
What’s also new is the introduction of an even more powerful rear-wheel drive powertrain.
This one uses a larger 82kWh battery and more powerful, 185 kW magnet e-motor on the rear axle, which translates to range of up to 320 miles with the XC40 Recharge ‘single motor extended range’ and up to 331 miles for the C40 Recharge ‘single motor extended range’.
What’s great about this new powertrain is that the larger battery supports rapid charging at speeds of up to 200 kW DC - with a 10-80 per cent charge taking just 28 minutes.
Besides the rear-wheel drive versions of the XC40 and C40 Recharge, there’s also an updated all-wheel-drive variant.
The old twin-motor set-up has been jettisoned in favour of a more powerful one - the new version having a 183kW permanent magnet e-motor on the rear axle and a 117kW asynchronous electric motor on the front axle, all paired with a 82 kWh battery.
It means the new XC40 Recharge ‘Twin Motor AWD’ can now travel 311 miles on a single charge - a 39 mile improvement on the outgoing model.
The range of the C40 Recharge ‘Twin Motor AWD’ has also improved up to 315 miles from 280 miles - a very decent 35 mile upgrade.
A Volvo spokesperson says:
“These updates are another big step in our work towards becoming a fully electric car maker by 2030.
Range and charging times are new key factors for more and more of our customers, and these improvements make our fully electric models even more attractive than they already were.”
Perhaps confusingly, there’s also a separate ‘Volvo XC40 Recharge’ that’s a plug-in hybrid, not fully-electric.
That car has an electric range of up to 28 miles between charges - and represents a tempting leasing option if you’re not quite ready to make the jump to full-blown plug-in power just yet.
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