Volvo's first all-electric car is charged up and ready to go
Say hello to the Volvo XC40 Recharge.
The luxury crossover SUV was unveiled in Los Angeles Wednesday as the Swedish-but-Chinese-owned carmaker's first all-electric car. The XC40 was first revealed as an internal combustion engine vehicle in 2017, and it's the first car to be transformed for Volvo's new Recharge line. Sales are supposed to begin later this year in the U.S. Pre-orders are open now with a $1,000 deposit.
Volvo pledged to make half of its cars all-electric by 2025 but hadn't offered any electric options outside of plug-in hybrid versions until now. As part of its ambitious electrification plans, every Volvo model will have a Recharge option. That means any Volvo model, from the XC90 that Uber uses for its self-driving cars to its 60 series sedans, can become a plug-in electric car or hybrid. A new electric model will come out every year through 2025 to hit the company's electric goals.
You May Also Like
The 78-kWh battery on the XC40 Recharge boasts 40-minute quick charging to 80 percent and gets a 200-mile range on a charge. The 402-horsepower vehicle will go from 0 to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. So far there's no concrete information on pricing, but the car should come in around $50,000 after electric tax incentives— considerably less than Tesla's all-electric SUV, the Model X, which after incentives and gas savings is priced at $73,315. The gas-powered XC40 starts at $34,345.
If you thought Volvo was already deep in electric, it's understandable: Its performance brand, Polestar, already revealed two electric models, the hybrid Polestar 1 from 2017 and the upcoming all-electric Polestar 2.
The infotainment system in the XC40 Recharge will run on Google Android, similar to the Polestar 2's entirely Google dashboard. That car is supposed to arrive next summer as Google's first foray into a car system. The Recharge will connect with Volvo's connected services platform, Volvo On Call, to track energy use. The service also lets you order in-car deliveries and control the car climate from your phone.
On top of the car reveal, Volvo announced sustainability plans to become carbon-neutral by 2040. By 2025, the company aims to reduce its carbon footprint by 40 percent through electric vehicles and also through its supply chain. Up to 25 percent of plastics in new Volvo cars by 2025 will be from recycled materials.
Added bonus: The car's even got a frunk (a front-trunk, for the uninitiated to engine-less EVs) made up of the front space available, since the batteries and electric motors sit at the bottom of the vehicle.
Topics Electric Vehicles
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
