A BATTERY OF QUESTIONS(some text hidden)

By Jonathan Crouch

Ten Second Review word count: 110

The EX40 is pretty much everything you'd expect a Volvo full-EV model to be but in its earlier form, badged as the 'XC40 Pure Electric', this car needed a few tweaks. It's had them. In recent times with this design, the base single motor front-driven version's been replaced by a rear-driven variant with longer range - and the dual motor AWD model has got a larger battery, so goes further too. Adding new 'EX40' badging has completed the transition - creating the car we're going to look at in this review. As before, the drawback is premium pricing but otherwise, a lot of boxes seem to have been ticked here.

Background word count: 203

Volvo's first full-EV was this car, originally called the XC40 Pure Electric and now known as the EX40. Time to take a fresh look at it. We didn't actually see this car in its original XC40-badged form until 2020 - long after most rival makers had entered the full-electric segment. And that delay was strange because Volvo had previously been near the forefront of the trend towards electrification; the company was, after all, one of the very first to popularise Plug-in hybrid powertrains in its models. And at the end of the last decade, played a significant role in helping to establish one of the most forward-thinking electric brands on the market - Polestar. That Polestar link is strong here; this model shares its CMA platform and virtually all its engineering with a Polestar 2. Which meant it also got the substantial range of engineering updates made to that small Polestar in late-2023. Shortly after these were introduced, Volvo decided that the electric side of the XC40 model line needed more of its own identity, so in early 2024 the EV variants were separated from their combustion counterparts by a new name - EX40, creating the car we're going to look at here.

Driving Experience word count: 323

There are three flavours of EX40 on offer. Most customers will opt for the 69kWh 'Single Motor' version, which was once (in this car's original XC40 Pure Electric form) front-driven, but the Swedish maker's now moved the e-motor to the rear axle and slightly uprated its output to 238hp. Without any real impact on performance - rest to 62mph is dispatched in 7.3s on the way to the 112mph top speed that all Volvos these days share. EV driving range is WLTP-rated at up to 296 miles. Ideally though, you'd want to stretch at least as far as the mid-level 'Single Motor 'Extended Range' mid-level rear-driven model, which has 252hp and uses a larger 78kWh battery providing for a 345 mile range. The faster EX40 alternative is the 'Twin Motor' AWD variant, which uses a larger 82kWh battery pack and twin electric motor set-up that has adopted different front and rear e-motors, with 150hp and 258hp respectively. These provide for a prodigious 408hp total power output figure in the standard Twin Motor model, but if for some unfathomable reason that's not enough, you can boost it further to 442hp with the optional 'Performance' software upgrade that comes included with the two added 'Black Edition' trim grades; this upgrade was one of the few changes introduced as part of this design's transition to 'EX40' status. Even with a standard Twin Motor EX40 variant, performance is startling, a massive 670Nm of torque (at which point the main motor is spinning at a heady 14,000rpm), catapulting the car to 62mph in just 4.7s. Whatever kind of EX40 you choose, to get the kind of range figure that Volvo claims, you'll need to engage what the Swedish maker calls 'One Pedal Drive', selectable from the 'Driving' menu provided on this centre-dash screen. This dramatically increases the regenerative braking effect when you come off the throttle, to the point where the brake pedal will hardly ever be needed.