Not quite its claimed number but it was being driven a little more enthusiastically. Based on some loose calculations on the day, I estimated it would do 320 km of daily city commuting. Performance is unreasonably perky for a crossover Volvo although the ride could be a little less firm considering this is a commuter car and our city road surfaces aren’t exactly smooth. Not that you’d often let it get anywhere near zero charge, of course you should treat an electric vehicle much like your mobile phone by charging it at every opportunity.įrom behind the wheel, the XC40 felt surprisingly lightweight for an EV, despite tipping the scales at 2.2 tons. On a standard three-phase domestic 7–11 kW wall point charger, you’re looking at eight hours, but somewhat longer via a normal wall plug. Hooked up to a 150-kW ultra fast charger, you’ll get to 80% of that in around 40 minutes. More importantly, however, is an estimated range of 418 km. With 300 kW and 660 Nm, the XC40 is plenty quick enough, boasting a 0–100 km/h time of 4.9 seconds. It’s driven by two electric motors (one powering the front wheels and another the rears), powered by a 400 V, 78 kWh battery pack. The charging port is on the driver’s side front wing. ![]() It looks identical to its internal combustion and PHEV brothers, outside of the blanked-off body colour grille, Recharge branding on the C-pillar, a bespoke alloy wheel design and some new exterior colours. With this in mind, I hopped into Volvo’s XC40 P8. Read also: BMW i3: Is running an electric vehicle all that simple here in SA? This will change, of course, but at the moment an EV makes the most sense to drive to the office, or pop to the shops. Battery technology and the associated charging infrastructure are still in their infancy, which means travelling vast distances between our city centres in South Africa is still something of a challenge in an EV. The other key behind the location was to highlight the general use case of an electric vehicle, which is that of a commuter rather than a long-distance cruiser. Cities and residential areas are seen to be polluted by the sheer volume of people driving round all the time but if everyone drove an EV, this would largely disappear. One of the key drivers behind the drive to electric vehicles is that they produce zero ‘tailpipe’ emissions. With that in mind, Volvo SA has started to ramp up its local offering of hybrid and electric vehicles, the bulk of which I was invited to drive recently at an event in Sandton’s CBD. By 2030, the manufacturer aims to produce and sell fully electric vehicles only … it is all in. By 2025, half of its vehicle sales will be fully electric. ![]() While our time was limited with the Polestar 2, it certainly impressed upon the TFL team.Volvo has committed to a fully electric future. ![]() On top of the mega-casting, these upcoming Volvos should come with the new Northvolt/Volvo designed “state-of-the-art battery cells.” The scale of Volvo’s worldwide commitment to full electrification cannot be understated, considering their constant advancement of their EV platforms.Īlong with this EV crossover, the Polestar 3 should kick off its production at about the same time. This crossover will likely pack two electric motors on each axle, riding on Volvo’s new EV platform. That essentially allows one aluminum component to comprise the structure of the vehicle. This vehicle may be our first example of Volvo’s aluminum “mega-casting” method. ![]() While it is smaller than the (soon outgoing) XC90, there should be space for three-row seating given the unique packaging of this EV. Now, there’s also news floating around that Volvo will begin production on their all-new, three-row crossover named the ‘Embla’ soon. Torslanda is our largest plant and will play a crucial role in our ongoing transformation as we move towards becoming a pure electric car maker by 2030.” Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo CEO “With these investments we take an important step towards our all-electric future and prepare for even more advanced and better electric Volvos. Insiders say that the new crossover will resemble the Volvo Concept Recharge: Image Volvo
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |