VOLVO C40 RECHARGE

SWEDES BACKFLIP; MOTOR NOW IN THE REAR TO IMPROVE RANGE AND DYNAMICS

- STEPHEN DOBIE

BY 2026 EVERY Volvo sold in Australia will take its power purely from a plug, and the C40 kicked off the process as the company's first pure EV. It also injected yet more pep into the Swedes' increasingly contemporary range. Love or loathe the dawn of the crossover coupe, the C40 appears a pretty successful execution of the idea, at least stylistically.

This MY24 update arrives relatively early in the C40's life, but that's because it goes hand-in-hand with an identical update for its more practical XC40 sibling. The headline is that the cheaper single-motor versions have switched to a rear-wheel-drive layout, which would seem doolally in a purely petrol car, but it's less of a manufacturing headache in the world of EVs.

The move is thanks to a new electric motor, designed and built in-house by Volvo, which sits at the rear for the sake of efficiency rather than handling, though we're promised that's sharpened up too. The single-motor C40 Recharge climbs from 438km to 477km of range, while the dual-motor (and all-wheel driven) version jumps by a clean 100km for a total of 550km. Both figures are a mite larger than an equivalent XC40, too, credit going to the C40's slipperier aero profile.