Taking things seriously.
While some brag, others conspire. While some critique, others dissemble. And while some promise, others do. Volvo champions the doers. It was not that long ago that they committed to Carbon Neutrality by 2025. And they seem to be on track with that commitment.
Then they said, all the way back in 2017, that their target would be to have no deaths in a Volvo car by 2020. Now, that’s a ridiculous thing to say, because people still drive cars, and from 2017 to today we have seen people eating Tide pods, Goop has become a thing, guys and gals danced next to the car they are supposedly driving and some have even gotten into snorting condoms. Read into it “stupid is as stupid does”.
But you can’t but try. And Volvo’s more to limit top speed to 180KPH is as damaging to our core petrol-head nature as consistent to the values the brand has committed to. But they have done it. And as much as I disagree with the sentiment, I applaud the courage. It does put in people’s minds that speed kills, when the reality is that the only thing speed does is highlight the lack of judgment of the driver. And yes, if that lack of judgment happens beyond a certain speed, no passive safety feature can prevent this human from expiring.
First Full EV. Or… FFEV?
Anyway, what’s done is done and Volvo will or will not see the consequences of their decisions.
And now, with anything but fanfare, they announce the XC40 Recharge. A full electric SUV with an 78KWh battery, 400HP and a range of about 400km. Boom. Mic drop.
The new car shares the modular architecture (EXPLAIN MODULAR) with other brand models, which allows Volvo to remain competitive in the economies of scale with other, and larger, producers. Now, the car is an All Wheel Drive with two electric motors, one for each pair of wheels, a 78kWh battery, and with 660Nm of torque on an SUV-type configuration. Pretty much in the range and dimensions of a Tesla Model Y.
Acceleration is otherworldly at 4.9s to 100KPH, and in line with the American competitor. True the Y has a performance version but going down to 3.5s to 100KPH is perhaps unwise for Volvo and their commitment to safety. Even weight distribution and low center of gravity make the XC40 very stable and rigid in turns.
Information overload
Now, there are things we know, and there are things we do not know about this new Volvo. For example, we know it has a wide array of safety features to avoid road obstacles. We know it will be upgrade-able over the air. We know the infotainment is co-designed with Google. And that, although not said, it hints at a self-driving future.
We have told you pretty much all we know, and here is a video of their launch for your reference.
However, we don’t know a couple of things:
- Price
- Availabilty
We reckon not knowing how much it costs or when we could actually buy it are perhaps less important (?)