Driving my VOLVO C40 to France! Charging is THE challenge... *trip report*

We are heading straight into the French charging dessert, will we make it without issues? Let's go on a roadtrip!
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[@ScalexCzech]

In July I rode the route: Nymburk (Czech Republic), Munich (Germany), Vaduz (Liechtenstein), Rothenthurm (Switzerland), Chamonix (France), Menton (France, traveling through Italy), Monaco (Monaco), and then traveling through the south of France (Grasse, Aix en Provence, La Ciotat, Marseille, Baux de Provence, Antibes, and other smaller places around these cities. And then via Dijon (France) and Heillbronn (Germany) back home to Nymburk (Czech Republic). Total approx. 4250 km. Volvo XC40 FWD. Charging absolutely no problems. All chargers worked, we didn't have to wait for anything, there was no queue for charging anywhere. We mostly charged during small shopping trips (15-20 minutes), or during lunch or dinner (40-50 minutes). More than 90% of the time we charged at Ionity stations (I got a discounted charging rate from Volvo, unfortunately only for a year). It was our first big trip with an electric car, we expected problems, but lautr nothing. Absolutely relaxing journey in a modern car. And subjectively I felt better after a longer trip than before with a car with an internal combustion engine. The fact that the range forces you to take breaks has a positive effect on reducing fatigue.

[@thom-lov]

Great to hear you had a beautiful trip with the car. 😊☀️

[@pbstrickland]

I appreciate your continued support for the Boston RedSox

[@thom-lov]

Apologies for the poor audio, this was a pretty spontaneous video so didn't have my mic along.. Hope you enjoy anyway. 🙂

[@achaz_]

Ça fait toujours plaisir de voir des belles voitures comme celle-ci sur nos route ! It's always a pleasure to see nice cars like this one on our roads !

[@PaulHo]

Seems counterintuitive, but the garment bag should go under the dog bed. I always put important things like papers or computer under mine necause it's padded my default and actually less likely to get messed up.

[@NikzeeL]

Got my C40 Single plus Onyx Black about 2 weeks ago. And im loving it!

[@thom-lov]

Great! Safe miles 😊

[@switchtoelectric]

Als je ooit in de regio Zaanstad bent, lijkt me leuk om een video met jou doen 😊

[@barryw9473]

I see a similar efficiency in my XC40 Recharge. Just took a road trip from SF Bay Area to San Diego and then back home - had no issues charging - usually got 153 kW when plugging in below 20% SoC.

[@thom-lov]

That must be a great drive Barry! Thanks for the info, in this case I did not precondition so I noticed it took a bit longer before the charging reached the best figures. Lately I’m also frequently getting 153/154kW at low 20%.

[@barryw9473]

@@thom-lov I used the built in navigation for highway navigation so car always conditioned battery pack, and the weather was pretty mild, too. Yes, it was a good drive - stopping to charge made it much more relaxing than a gas car trip.

[@Milhouse77BS]

Nice shade over chargers

[@thom-lov]

Yep! Also for when it rains haha!

[@mdshovel]

I wish more were like Fastned. And there is a more substantial roof mount dog guard from Volvo that goes in the upper slots and can be swung up and down

[@thom-lov]

Yep they are very solid, barely any trouble with Fastned. Will check the dog guard, thx!

[@SteveLoughran]

The drive through design also lets you top up with bikes on the back or a trailer; UK stations are almost always some corner of a car park where you have to reverse in

[@mdshovel]

@@SteveLoughran Yep ... the UK attitude seems to be that chargers are a dirty little secret

[@BF1GUN]

I have a C40 on order, but when I considered getting an EV, it was on the basis that it would only be used for journeys that I could easily achieve without the requirement to rely on public chargers. On the public charge network, I have yet to see a "queuing" system in place. For example, what happens is you find all the chargers in use, and you wait for one to become available, but before you can access it, someone else beats you to it? Or, as per the video, you find the charger is faulty, so you then have to wait again for another to become available. Can you imagine the arguments that are going to occur?

[@SteveLoughran]

I wish you could set the cars up to put the hazard lights on a few minutes before they are charged. That way if you are walking around you can just look to see if they are on yet -no need to look at a phone, and if there is a group of people, they can all see when it's time to head over. Then there's the way I'd like the route in the satnav to show the likely state of charge: green, yellow. orange, red. That would give us an easier view of when to think about stopping to top up...

[@thom-lov]

That would be pretty smart Steve! In a few years we all, hopefully, have some charging etiquette and understanding.. I hope haha!

[@lynski4033]

I wonder if the 2023 year model improved charging speeds? The original reviews of the C40 mentioned that the charging speed drops off quite quickly, and in the video you're only getting 139 kW at 26%. On my one I get 150 kW till 50% and 125 kW till 70%. Would be nice to hear what kinds of speeds other people are getting.

[@adamdincher210]

Its the same story with 2023, at 85% it starts dipping under 80kW

[@dimitrisluys1241]

Welcome in Halle

[@thom-lov]

Haha thanks... The connection back to the highway going south is a bit annoying from this point though, had to drive through the village first to find a turn to go back again..

[@timob.6570]

I feel the best/efficient speed for the C40 is 130 km/h. Fast enough and still kinda okayish consumption

[@thom-lov]

Agreed! I wonder if the better aero of the C40 also contributes to this. As my previous XC40 felt less stable at high speeds. But that one also did not have a heavy battery in the floor 😅

[@InsEngineered]

Does it have a camp mode like tesla ? or something similar ?

[@thom-lov]

Sadly not. Hopefully it will come with a future update!

[@81artant]

Is it a problem the panoramic roof on sunny hot days?

[@thom-lov]

For us it’s not. AC works well and the pan roof is also tinted/heat reflective which helps 😊

[@fmsantoscar]

Get a Tesla membership for a month and you can fast charge in lots of superchargers along Europe and with no queues. I’ve just driven a round trip Sweden-Belgium and it worked seamless

[@thom-lov]

Good suggestion! Was also thinking about that to try out. 😊

[@steveevans2703]

@@thom-lov I would also recommend it. I drove my C40 through France last summer and the Tesla network was great. You don't need a membership (just the Tesla app) but it is cheaper if you do.

[@timob.6570]

Definitely, I will do the same once my Ionity subscription ends in Oct

[@SteveLoughran]

Ionity offer monthly subscriptions now too -for a cross European trip both make sense. Note that the Tesla subscription isn't available in the UK -Ionity only here

[@TheChargeShow]

They do look really good don't they :)

[@thom-lov]

Absolutely 😊

[@drivinvolvoaround9910]

Does your C40 still have the viberation over 100km/h? Mine is more obvious over 120km/h during highway driving.

[@timob.6570]

mine still has it, C40 Twin late 22

[@thom-lov]

Same here, vibrations around 100kmh/62mph…

[@drivinvolvoaround9910]

@@timob.6570 I really love this car and Volvo, but the viberation is quite annoying. Still waiting for a solution.

[@timob.6570]

@@thom-lov my dealer told me Volvo will have a fix in Q4 .. well let‘s see

[@thom-lov]

@@timob.6570 q4 what year? 😜😂

[@cosettapessa6417]

So the max distance at highway speed is 300 kms?

[@thom-lov]

Will test this in a few weeks, stay tuned.

[@cosettapessa6417]

@@thom-lov 😅