Volvo XC40 Recharge T5 plug-in hybrid review - DrivingElectric

[@christiankromphardt]

Please, do Continental Europe a favor by adding your fuel economy calculations in kilometers also. Best regards

[@siraff4461]

Like all the continental reviewers do for the UK then? Oh - wait...

[@L77yma]

Just google it and do the conversion yourself !

[@carcontent8214]

Christian Kromphardt Brexit 🤦🏽‍♂️

[@massoud999]

As usual well done Vicky

[@kinocchio]

I’m looking forward to the full electric version.

[@jltplease]

Went to a Tesla charging location. Bunch of drivers stuck in their model s waiting for it to charge. You want that?

[@jltplease]

@@tony24-u9x that wouldn't solve the issue of having to wait to charge your vehicle.

[@kinocchio]

@@jltplease I'd just charge at home.

[@jltplease]

@@kinocchio I'm pretty sure all the 10 Tesla's that we're charging charged their car at home as well, but needed it charged still.

[@jltplease]

@Every child born AS MUSLIM if they can reduce the wait time to charge but I don't see that happening anytime soon

[@marquisdaily7715]

can you please use both miles and km ?

[@Jerichocassini]

5:32 Only other than that economy... this car is literally a case of style over substance. It doesn't have the MPG figures of actually efficient alternatives, nor the low up-front cost of a diesel. It is a car for people who like the concept but don't care very much about reality. It will probably sell in the millions!

[@BobH809]

Everyone's problem with electric cars is the up front costs (and range, and time to charge...). This is largely down to the manufacturers, who want to hang on to their fossil fuelled models because they need so much more in maintenance at the dealership throughout the life of the vehicle. So I guess they think, we lose money without the follow up servicing we get with fossil fueled cars so whack on another 10 grand or more to the cost. Unfortunately too, for putting off people from buying one, the charging infrastructure is very poor in comparison to other countries. If the government want people to buy electric vehicles, then get the car manufacturers to lay out some money to put into a national charging pot for rolling them out everywhere.

[@hankthetank185]

Nice review Vicky. Yes, can't wait to see how the Recharge Pure Electric model performs. I think plug in hybrids are too heavy, when the engine kicks in it has to lug all that extra battery weight. I think the standard hybrid is a better mix as it has a smaller battery pack.

[@colinc.8742]

Hank The Tank I have had a p.in h. since October. OK most of my driving in about 20 miles but I have only put in £35 of petrol now half full. It all depends on individual usage. I also have solar so not only do I charge for free but the govt. pay me a feed in tariffs. Win Win.

[@mjwndave]

Great review Vicky, as always :) Please review the BMW X1 XDrive25e when you can should be comparable to this but with more range. One thing I'd add too, for the XC40, is I was in the Volvo dealership at the weekend talking about this very car and they told me that the batteries originate from China and they were struggling getting hold of them. The salesperson even said she'd seen an email warning that they may be looking to cancel some orders! worth bearing in mind for anyone on here thinking about it

[@benpaynter]

The big problem with all the plug in hybrids is that when you're in an EV and need to charge you often find a charger blocked by a PHEV. I saw a BMW PHEV blocking an Ecotricity rapid charger at the M6 Toll Motorway Services the other day trickle charging whilst a Leaf and i3 waited to charge.

[@alperokutgan2728]

the color is thunder gray?

[@pkaps5799]

Seems the best choice since the all electric will have only abt 240 miles range. And the 35 mpg for the petrol alone consumption is not bad for that car which happens to be quite heavy in comparison. Well, the 40 thou price is not cheap but along the in town electric trips you get worry free travelling on the security of the petrol engine.

[@obewann8220]

I thought the Recharge name was reserved for the full electric, not the PHEV. However thanks for the review

[@JonLondrezos]

Good review. It would be good to know how it compares to the BMW 225xe

[@jorgbochow494]

BMW has had the 225xe Active Tourer for quite a while now. It has the same setup: Battery + 3 cylinder engine. It's selling poorly because apperently not many people want to spend quite some money for a small car and drive around with a 3 cylinder once the battery is empty. Can't blame them.

[@emmabell8537]

Probably because of really poor reviews for most people who have an average commute, drive to the shops go out for a drive at the weekend they are a great choice had my mini phev 4 months now for work and the shops it runs on electric and when i want to have fun at the weekends stick it in sports mode the 150 bhp engine boosted by the 98bhp electric with lots of torque big fun on country roads the battery and regen keep charge in the battery for boost and you can still get around 46 mpg yea a diesel will do that but it wont be as responsive. And when i do have a long run i get 44 mpg on the motorway a full charge when i get to my destination and no worry about range add to that with an engine for each axel 4wd when i need it. Well i had a d5 awd volvo for 3 years driving carfully i was lucky to get 34 mpg from the 250 bhp in town i stuggled to get 19mpg and over 3 years it averaged 28.5 mpg and it was not as quick.

[@welfiblablabla]

Your only big croticism is fuel economy, isn't that why one would buy a PHEV? Anyways I'd also go with the BEV version

[@pers.jrgensen3178]

The cabin heater doesn’t work in Pure Electric Mode

[@afnankhokhar5578]

Hi, do you know if the XC40 PHEV relies on the engine to heat the cabin as most other PHEVs do?

[@MarkGaudie]

Pure electric ⚡️ all day long!

[@MarkGaudie]

Why would you need combustion on a road trip if your electric car has over 200 miles range. My bladder will only last 200 miles then I can charge up while I go for a pee and a coffee. Combustion engines have their uses for people who can’t be bothered to plan ahead or tow over 1000kg I guess. But other than that I’m happy to go all electric.

[@oki7716]

@@MarkGaudie try to go with your tesla in eastern europe, good luck.

[@MaunoKoivistoOfficial]

Great review. I wouldn't mind if these were longer.

[@thorarnerugsveen5794]

Why not test the Peugeot 3008 hybrid?

[@robertlangham2356]

ONLY 40k plus the extras, rip off Britain continues. I'm not so dazzled by a 9 inch touch screen that I have to have this car, 40k Really ????

[@bikeman123]

What's the performance/economy like when that little engine has to lug around that heavy empty battery?

[@bbbf09]

How heavy? A 12kwh battery like this shouldn't weigh more than 70-80kg - less than my weight. So your question becomes 'What's the performance/economy like when that little engine has to lug around an *average adult passenger*?'

[@bikeman123]

@@bbbf09 it's not just about the extra weight of the hybrid system. it's the lack of assist when the battery is depleted and it's effect on performance/economy.

[@BHBeckenbauer]

I like this car! The BMW X1 and MINI Countryman PHEVs are rivals for sure

[@LossyLossnitzer]

I am confused - I thought the recharge XC40 was just electric or is that new one?

[@MrNicolasBarte]

Lossy Lossnitzer they made a mistake.. this model is the T5 « twin engine » with a 3 cyl 180 hp and an electric motor under 25kwh.. hence the 30-40km range... the Recharge is full electric and has a range about 350km-400km. This model here is not the Recharge...

[@rossyhead69]

Been waiting for this one!!!!!

[@rossyhead69]

Ahhhh I thought it was the recharge, full ev. Great video but looking forward to that one. I’m testing one of these in a month for a couple of days

[@peterbondareff6675]

Could someone explain please what is all the hype about plug in hybrids??!! it takes ages to charge it plus you need to put petrol in it so you need to stop twice to get you going. At this moment PHEVs are an absolute waste of money in my opinion. And regarding pure electric cars- what if a hurricane or storm or whatever going to disable electricity supply- what are you going to do!? Plus they are expensive and heavy!

[@StumpyVandal]

The range on this one is terrible but if you wait until next year the Toyota Rav 4 Phev is coming. 65km range on battery only 0to100 in under 6 seconds and it’ll be cheaper. The reason it would suit me is normally in a day our car does about 30km, but several times a year it’ll do 500km to 800km in a day. So we’ll literally have difficulty burning enough fuel to keep it fresh in normal running. Once battery only cars get up above 800km range I’ll be having their arm off but until then this’ll do.

[@peterbondareff6675]

Stumps but again how much will Rav4 Phev cost? It’s a great car and I love it but how many years would you need to drive to pay off the difference comparing even to a self charging hybrid Rav4

[@StumpyVandal]

It’s roughly half. A RAV4 hybrid is about 10 cents per km and the PHEV using electricity is around 5cents. But this is for me in France where the electricity is relatively cheap. It’s also by in large nuclear so not carbon producing... which I’m not going to lie is a big motivation for me. The brown cloud off the coast from me is horrific after the rush hour traffic. It needs to end.

[@StumpyVandal]

And I meant cheaper than the Volvo, sub 40k

[@peterbondareff6675]

Stumps :) it makes sense for you then. In Ireland everything much more expensive then in France I suppose.

[@emmabell8537]

Supprised by the setup when it is almost identical to the mini phev, only the mini gives high 30's in petrol mode. After 3 years of owning an xc60 infotainment systems suck and there service centers well i got a premium phone charge for chasing why 6 hours later my couple of hours service was still not done, the following year the rear break pads were replaced i queried the front ones no they were ok 3 months later on holiday in the lake district lost my front breaks and 2 days of my holiday had to have disks and pads replaced i really liked the xc40 but could not live with 3 more years of poor infotainment and service backup got the mini and loving it.

[@sfiron]

The short electric range makes you a slave of charging...my wife hates it...she has the s90 T8. The cable is btw heavy and quit hefty to put in and out. Also it locked in unless you unlock!. Every time you go into the car you have to select Pure driving if you want electric efficiency annoying. Another design fault is the CarPlay which displays low on the dash making you lower you eyes from the road using Waze for example....!

[@elliex20]

You don't have to put it in pure. The car always start in hybrid mode and it starts the engine only if the accelerator is pressed to far. Before I got mine, I went to test drive the V60 T8. I had to check several times if the car was in pure mode since the engine did not start throughout the test drive.

[@sfiron]

I know. I had the S90 for about a year now. The pure is basically a more economic hybrid state that extend the electric range by making the cars delay the petrol engine kick in. Having said that the new “Individual” mode lets you set your own defaults(for me pure), however you need to select it when you start driving every time. Should pair with the key profile. A miss feature in my mind. The whole sense I’m having from this extremely expensive car is a need to turn mobs and fiddle and tune in order to get from point A to B. My wife literally misses her 2010 Mazda 6.

[@hadtobe4502]

Volvo, like Toyota, keep flogging their "last generation" infotainment system. With Volvo, hopefully the new Android based systems will be better.

[@morgankarlsson3526]

Love that car😍😍🇸🇪🇸🇪🙏

[@bbbf09]

18miles is truly terrible - cold or not. Not sure why we can't have more hybrids with range of 50miles pure electric. For most journeys this would likely cover 90%+ of daily journeys/commutes.

[@craigrich]

The fuel economy in the normal petrol XC40 is embarrassingly bad. It is almost as if they designed it that way to make the forthcoming hybrid and full electric more attractive.

[@nitelite78]

Charging rate capped at 3.6kw? That's effin rubbish.

[@prerunnerwannabe]

It's pretty typical of PHEVs.

[@nitelite78]

@@prerunnerwannabe To protect the life of the small battery I guess.

[@prerunnerwannabe]

@@nitelite78 Possibly, but since the battery pack can dish out a healthy amount of power (not to mention regen) I'm more inclined to think that it's more for packaging and cost saving than protecting the battery. Just my guess though.

[@fraserp2377]

I have to disagree regarding the electric motor power, it is only 81hp and the car is not light weight. 20 miles range could see a lot of people hardly ever using fuel for their commute, but the weak motor kind of ruins the experience. The new rav4 prime plug in hybrid has a 126hp electric motor and 41 miles range which is much more realistic.

[@siraff4461]

So if you have more than around a 20 mile daily use just buy a diesel. 18 miles (even 20 miles) isn't reasonable for a newly released phev these days - that should be 30-40+ in normal use - then 33mpg is pathetic. Why not offer this with a diesel?

[@mikeportjogger1]

"It's not a sport SUV". Remind me, what does the S stand for?

[@oki7716]

Slow

[@PierreWah]

i want to scratch that blue dot on youre shirt so bad

[@paulholterhaus7084]

The Recharge is an electric....NOT a Hybred....Paul

[@XLoaferY]

Untrue. All Volvos with any electric motor is called a recharge (BEV and PHEVs). The electric version is called P8

[@AR-zr1om]

Not offering motorway fast charge hss ruined this car for me it'd be ideal otherwise

[@scotiajinker8392]

£50 k 😂😂😂 for a wee car , my xc90 B5 was only £5k more & I can get nearly 50mpg on the motorway.

[@SmokingCrop]

she says 40 grand, not 50. Also, that B5 is out for longer so prices still have to drop for the new xc40 twin engine Plus the xc90 is way too big if one is looking to get a smaller SUV but with all the luxuries included.

[@scotiajinker8392]

Smoking Crop watch it again , she says the pure electric car will be around £50k , that’s before any extras. I’ll keep my xc90 inscription with a load of extras for £5k more . I can drive from Glasgow to London on one tank of diesel, none of this antiqued sitting around for hours looking for a charge point & charging up. All this EV rubbish is the emperor’s new cloths.

[@hellmekun]

@@scotiajinker8392 i've heard that you can't drive your diesel engine cars in london by 2025 though, is that true?

[@scotiajinker8392]

hellmekun no idea , I don’t live in London

[@BenHaskell]

Speaking as someone who currently drives a v60 T8 Polestar, I wouldn't touch another Volvo (particularly PHEV) with a barge pole. Unreliable, poorly thought out, very expensive for what they are and the in car tech is infuriating to use. Caveat emptor!

[@bikeman123]

A £40k car that's going to take the market by storm? Haven't you got deep pockets!

[@japanluv]

She does:)) I just went with an used late 2014 Outlander Phev GX4h. Doing so far 20 to 23 miles around town in pure ev. Motorway getting 38 to 42mpg driving it nicely:D For an almost 1.9 tonne is great plus while you still got some energy left in the batteries, it goes quite fast on the motorway or town once you floor it. When I see these newcomers, reminds me that Mitsu was the first one offering the PHEV type of vehicle back in 2014. Their mileage is similar in EV mode to the 2014 Outlander. People complain about the interior but I like it, being the GX4h spec and also quick charging socket, heated seats, sunroof. So I ll hold onto it till all these manufacturers are coming with bigger range in these PHEV cars or until I can swap a Tesla into it like some projects on the internet:D

[@phooriwatkuatan9227]

Beauty so much.

[@Tom55data]

like all SUV's it is a brick - and drives through the air like a brick. I have an A3-Audi e-tron plug-in hybrid (a car !) , and when on long journeys (100's miles) when it becomes hybrid - it gets 55-60 mpg. On my 50 mile compute it get 100+ mpg. I so hate SUV's no space inside, more likely to roll over with 20% greater chance of death, and drive like a brick. (sorry - rant)

[@modernschoolatlas]

I agree, and we need to stop people buying big ugly faux-suvs in order to cut national energy consumption. Buy a car instead.

[@SmokingCrop]

XC40 has way more space inside than a V40.. It's also much more comfortable.. How fast are you going into curves that makes you roll over (or do you mean in a collision)? Show me an XC40 news article that had someone die in it... Check the safety ratings on this car.. (Your opinion definitely doesn't match mine, lol)

[@LiveTorsionParadoxTo]

So you have to plug it in and you have to put petrol in it. This, on the face of it at least, sounds like the worst of both worlds. For this reason, I haven't been sold on this interim and complicated ''solution''.

[@mowcowbell]

It can be the best of both worlds. I drive my Honda Clarity on EV power for daily commuting, but if I need to drive to Dallas, I stop at a gas station and add 250 miles of range in about 2 minutes at a gas pump.

[@LiveTorsionParadoxTo]

@@mowcowbell Hmm, interesting. Good to get a view from someone who actually lives with one. Many thanks.

[@onlineo2263]

That range is not more than enough. It is barely adequate. Our 25 mile Wltp BMW phev has been averaging 9-10 miles on electricity this winter. We live on a hill so to get home we drive back up the hill. Many others will have this issue and this volvo would quite likely average 11-12 miles on EV for us. Dont buy this rubbish get a PHEV with an advertised 40+ mile range or preferably a fully electric. There are a few electric cars that can go 200 mile real world on the motorway then charge back up to 80% full in under an hour. So that is driving 3 hours, charging for 25-55 mins depending on model and then driving for another 2+ hours. Not many people are driving more than 5+ hours per day or over 375 miles. Kona, E Niro, ipace, nearly all Tesla, Etron, Taycan, 60kwh Leaf will all manage this. The new Zoe may also if your top speed is 60-65mph on the motorway instead of 70-75.

[@Cross-xm2fr]

Model y coming

[@savedfaves]

PHEV can go PHEV off.

[@huss1205]

This car is very expensive...

[@AndreasGeorgiades]

PHEV is the 1900 equivalent of a "half horse - half Ford Model T" carriage. Worst of both worlds. The sooner Auto manufacturers convert to fully electric (of which BEV is the current right approach) the more they can delay their inevitable extinction.

[@GrrMeister]

*Love your reviews but at the end of the day, too expensive and it's as aerodynamic as a BRICK, mid 2020 Mercedes will be launching their A & B Class Hybrids that will knock this dead and in the weeds.*

[@oki7716]

Apples and Oranges... B Class? You compare an SUV to a B Class?

[@Chb1812]

Bland car

[@damiancox7276]

Thanks this car is as pointless as a broken pencil, very disappointing but good to know thank you

[@SmartMart1658]

It's not the "best of both worlds" - it's the worst of both worlds - a tiny battery range and all the downside of having an ICE (internal combustion engine) eg., 2000 moving parts which will be costly to service and maintain compared to an EV which has around 20 moving parts and requires little maintenance and will last a lot longer. You would be better buying a Tesla Model 3 standard range plus for £39,000 (with a range of 254 miles WLTP)which will hardly lose any value in terms of depreciation over the first 12 months. In fact used ones are selling for slightly more than new price currently. Any vehicle with an ICE engine will plummet in value over the next 12 months as all manufacturers move to producing electric vehicles. Hybrids are a waste of time and money and are definitely NOT the "best of both worlds". ICE cars are obsolete and inefficient. This channel should not be promoting anything with an internal combustion engine.

[@mirzayilmaz5966]

Volvo noop

[@andrewdyson4255]

Over priced and poorly equipped I’ll pass on this.

[@stephenvincent4706]

Volvo’s are like Hyundais; ridiculous prices for what they offer. Overrated and overpriced. 👎

[@hsvcommodore4111]

You clearly have never looked at Hyundai prices compared to let's say a vw

[@marcobresciani544]

do you drive it? I do and I tell you that you are bla bla bla ! I had many germans cars, and now xc40 which far more comfortable and solid than germans. than volvo interior and exterior design is spectacular. Never germans cara again for me!