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5 thoughts about the 2024 Volvo C40 Recharge

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. -- The Volvo C40 Recharge is a quirky yet elegant little hatch with a lot to talk about. Along with the XC40, it’s the first rear-wheel-drive Volvo since the 1990s. The cabin blends Google power with Scandinavian simplicity. I think the C40 looks like an early crossover from the ‘80s. So yes, I have thoughts. Five of them. The design reminds me of the AMC Eagle Stay with me here. Am I the only one who thinks this looks like an AMC Eagle? ItÂ’s the big wheels — these diamond-cut silver and black rollers measure 20 inches — and the silhouette. A slightly lifted hatchback is a crossover these days, but it shares some of the quirkiness and car-like quality of the Eagle, which could be considered an early crossover. Tenuous design connections aside, the slab front end, LED headlights and prominent Volvo emblem conjure the requisite premium feel. It does look the part of an EV, which is a natural vibe for Volvos in general. They exude quirky sophistication layered over Scandinavian minimalism and sensibility. Not your flavor of vodka? You may have heard the Dodge Charger is now an electric vehicle. I had an odd charging experience With a few minutes to kill on a Saturday morning, I pulled into a ChargePoint station to try to grab some bonus miles. I didnÂ’t have much time, but the ChargePoint chargers were literally across the street from where I was going. Might as well be plugged into one if IÂ’m going to sit in the parking lot, drink coffee and read Autoblog on my phone. Alas, the driver screen read “initializing charging” but never consummated the charge. I unplugged and re-plugged. No dice. ChargePoint charged me $2 for the pleasure of hooking up my car and not charging for five minutes. Like I said, I was just killing time and didnÂ’t absolutely need the juice, so away I went. I try to make a point of charging EVs on public infrastructure for each test car, and the results are uneven. This C40 had been recently charged, so I tend to think it was just a ‘bad handshakeÂ’ between the car and the charger, which seems to be common for EV owners. I suppose it could have been user error, too. In these situations thereÂ’s a tendency to assign blame. IÂ’m not. IÂ’m just saying it didnÂ’t work. ItÂ’s a fun little thing to drive The single, rear-mounted motor delivers 248 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque.

Volvo will start testing wireless charging with XC40 taxis

Volvo announced it will start testing wireless charging systems with its Volvo XC40 Recharge electric SUVs. It's doing so by creating a small fleet of XC40 Recharge taxis for Cabonline, the largest cab operation in the Nordic nations. The testing in Volvo's hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, will last for three years, and Volvo notes that the driving conditions will involve 12 hours a day of driving with cars racking up 100,000 kilometers (about 62,000 miles) per year. The charging stations come from American company Momentum Dynamics. They're embedded into the pavement of the Volvos' parking spaces and begin charging automatically when parked correctly (which is aided by the on-board surround-view camera). The charging speed is 40-kW, which is close to the maximum charging speed of many electric cars' on-board chargers when connected to a DC station. Interestingly, Momentum Dynamics lists systems capable of charging speeds as high as 450 kW on its website. Volvo did not make any announcements regarding future availability of wireless charging. We would imagine the results of this testing will affect whether the company intends to make it a factory offering. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Volvo XC90 Coasting Transmission Deep Dive | How, when and why of coasting

In our recent 2021 Volvo XC90 Recharge review, its turbocharged-supercharged-hybridized powertrain delivered impressive horsepower and fuel economy. But Volvo has one additional trick up its sleeve, propelling a car with power that's simpler, cheaper and all-natural: It's the power of momentum and gravity. I've always been halfway to a hypermiler. I'm not obsessive about it, but in city driving, I enjoy timing stoplight approaches to keep the wheels rolling and avoid the inertia of restarting from a stop. There's little point to needlessly racing and braking between red lights, wasting kinetic energy (and therefore fuel). So I tend to drive strategically instead, often catching up with the drivers who jackrabbit but get hung up at the lights. And, back when I owned a long line of vehicles with manual transmissions, I coasted. Coasting used to be slightly controversial. Some claimed it doesn't actually save gas, though my mileage calculations showed otherwise. Another school of thought insisted that removing engine braking from the equation, even momentarily, constitutes a dangerous loss of control. Of course, an experienced driver can slip a manual transmission back into gear in a flash when engine braking's actually needed. And one should always use some common sense and judgment about when and where to coast. I'm not talking about careening down a 15% grade into a school zone.  Anyway, those arguments became moot when automatic transmissions pretty much took over. (And no, never coast with a typical automatic transmission. Even if it weren't damaging to your type of automatic — but assume that it is — the risk of screwing up a nudge of the shifter from drive into neutral is too great.) XC90 Recharge 8 View 18 Photos But happily, some automakers in recent years have added a coasting feature to their automatics, with the aim of eking out more fuel efficiency. Volvo calls the feature on its Aisin eight-speed "Eco Coast." Some Mercedes, BMWs and others call it "sailing" or "gliding." The Hyundai Ioniq, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Polestar 2 are among EVs that allow you to cancel out all regeneration and freewheel downhill. And future cars such as the BMW iX are also being designed to do it. By building coasting into the clockworks, automakers have taken any traffic safety concerns out of the question, because the car will instantly switch you back into gear when needed.