Volvo C40 Recharge

The 2024 Volvo C40 Recharge is the company’s first car to use vegan-friendly fabric and materials. There’s no conventional leather in the cabin. The car is spacious. The dashboard gets topography-inspired inlays. The backlit trim panels on the dashboard and doors illuminate to reveal an abstract representation of a topography map. The dashboard itself is dominated by Volvo’s 9.0-inch portrait-oriented touchscreen flanked by slim and tall air vents. The 12.3-inch instrument cluster displays sharp graphics. The coupe-like sloping roofline eats into the cargo space and also causes much larger blind spots. The cabin has a number of clever storage spaces. The panoramic sunroof makes the cabin brighter.   

The C40 Recharge has a rather unique design. It’s styled like a pseudo-coupe with a lowering roofline and a high ground clearance. It’s not a sports utility vehicle (SUV) in the truest sense but Volvo has done a great job in getting the proportions right. From the front, the car almost looks identical to the Volvo XC40 Recharge. The car gets all-round LED lights. The Thor’s hammer headlights now get pixel technology for better illumination. The bumper is more chiselled and the fog-light housings have been reshaped. The lower sides gets generous plastic cladding to enhance the SUV look. 

Ride comfort of the 2024 Volvo C40 Recharge is good, despite the low profile tyres on 19-inch wheels. The high-back driver’s seat comes with lumbar support and massage function. All seats get enough legroom. Taller passengers on the rear seat may find headroom a bit lacking because of the flowing down roofline. The rear set comes with a foldable central armrest. Five persons can comfortably travel in the C40 Recharge. The suspension absorbs bumps and uneven roads nicely with minimum impact in the cabin. There is a bit of body roll because of the high stance and a compact body. There’s an air purification system that Volvo claims erases 80 percent of hazardous PM 2.5 particulars. 

The 2024 Volvo C40 Recharge is available in a single version in the Philippines. It’s mounted on Volvo’s Compact Modular Architecture (CMA). The car is equipped with two permanent-magnet motors that produce 408 PS/660 Nm. The motor is powered by a liquid-cooled 75kWh lithium-ion battery. There’s an 11kW on-board charger. The C40 Recharge accelerates quickly and the massive torque output further propels the vehicle. On the highway, the car rides like a dream. Handling is easy and on city streets and the C40 Recharge negotiates corners with minimum effort.

The C40 Recharge comes with Volvo’s one-pedal braking. It cranks up the regenerative level to the maximum. It’s effective and sufficient to fully stop the car. The system can be switched off via a setting on the touchscreen. All wheels come with disc brakes that stops the car instantly. The wheels have good traction and offer great road grip. Volvo has equipped the C40 Recharge with an advanced driver assistance system. Adaptive cruise control, pedestrian detection, a 360-degree camera, and blind-spot monitoring come as standard features.

At a starting price of ₱4.19 million, the 2024 Volvo C40 Recharge is among the most expensive crossover SUVs. It’s a stylish car with a comfortable cabin and lots of tech features. The rear seat is not the best in the segment but it is still more comfortable than its rivals. The running cost is low. Handling the C40 Recharge is easy. If the price isn’t a deterrent, then the C40 Recharge is a long-term-worthy vehicle.