• Long-range and more efficient than before
• Twin Motor car returns up to 334 miles per charge
• Expensive to buy

What are the running costs?

As an electric car, the Volvo XC40 Recharge can be inexpensive to run if you charge up using cheap, overnight electricity. As ever, pricey public charging will put the running costs closer to that of a petrol or diesel car.

The 2024 single motor cars use a 69kWh battery, and have a maximum range of 290 miles on the WLTP cycle. However, the single motor XC40 Recharge we tested could only manage a maximum range of roughly 200 miles, albeit over the course of a particularly bleak February week.

It’ll charge from a home wallbox overnight, with 11 hours required for the full 0-100% – though in reality you’ll almost never need to do that. The maximum fast charging rate is 130kW, so from a suitably powerful public charger it’ll top up from 10-80% in 34 minutes.

The Twin Motor gets an 82kWh battery, slightly larger than the pre-update model, and claim a maximum range of 334 miles – again, competitive, though slightly less efficient than the Single Motor.

Its larger battery takes 13 hours to charge from 0-100% on a home wallbox, but a faster maximum charge rate of 150kW means 10-80% from a public charger can be accomplished in 28 minutes.

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The XC40 Recharge has a cash price competitive with its rivals, such as the Tesla Model Y or Hyundai Ioniq 5 – the various models trade blows in terms of power and space for the money. Finance prices look a little pricey, but the XC40 Recharge is only available to lease via Care by Volvo, the brand’s all-inclusive subscription service that includes maintenance and consumables as well as the price of the lease itself.

Servicing and warranty

As mentioned, those who finance their XC40 through Care by Volvo have their servicing taken care of – it needs to be returned to the dealer every year or 18,000 miles, whichever comes first. The XC40 Recharge is covered by a three-year, 60,000 mile warranty, though the battery has a separate eight years and 100,000 miles of cover.

Reliability

The XC40 model line has been recalled nine times, with one specific to the Recharge model. Reliability is generally good, though, and the Recharge has significantly fewer moving parts or consumables to worry about in comparison to the petrol or hybrid XC40.

The new powertrains, however, do for the first time use Volvo’s own electric motor, so it’ll be interesting to see if this proves reliable.

Early cars suffered with a few software gremlins but the move to the Android Automotive operating system has largely cured this.