Auto tested more than 80 cars in 2024. As is tradition, we re-publish our twelve favourite tests of the year as our Best Tests daily through December. Then we present three Auto Special Awards in Best EV, Best Bakkie and Performance car of the year 2024. And then we choose the Top 3 Best Tests, before we announce Best Test 2024 on 1 January 2025. So come back for your daily Auto entertainment everyday through your holidays!
Moving on, its Boxing Day which mens Auto Best EV Day. What Won? Read on!
Auto Best EV 2024 3rd: Mercedes-AMG C63 S e-Performance
Auto Best EV 2024 2nd: GWM Ora 03 300 Super Luxury
Auto Best EV 2024 WINNER!: Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin Motor EV
Modern, all-electric Volvo has plusses. And drawbacks
Volvo’s launched first fully electric car in 2017. The small SUV-based XC40 followed its petrol kin three years later, to compete with is similarly EV pioneering rivals like the BMW iX3, Mercedes EQB, and others. It was however designed from the ground up to accept an electric powertrain alongside its ICE and hybrid siblings.
XC40 Recharge retains edgy ICE lines
Which meant that while it arrived quite some time after its gasoline kin, the XC40 did not suffer many of the compromises most of its bastardised combustion derived EV platform rivals did. We like that XC40 Recharge Twin Motor Ultimate also retains its ICE and PHEV looks beyond that silkworm’s head body colour blank EV grille, and a little Recharge, and Twin branding on the C-pillar.
Ours had a splendid set of face polished alloys with five chunky big polished spokes that really look the part. It has keyless entry that you don’t need to take the key put of your pocket for, or even press start. There isn’t even a button. The car recognises your keyed bum in the seat, so just pop it into drive and go. Same when you leave. It switches off as soon as your touche departs the chair and the doors are shut as you stroll off.
Stepping back into the smart, if spartan cabin, it’s surprisingly small screen Android-powered ‘hey Google’ infotainment is great on paper. But some of us still prefer manually setting our cars. And we hate having to pore through layers of menus to get anything, even menial tasks done. Volvo infotainment is still a fail. But then it’s certainly not alone on this dreadful age of useless man-to-car interfaces.
Android ‘hey Google’ system great on paper
Getting down to the nuts and bolts, this Recharge Twin packs a staggered pair of e-motors. A 117 kW asynchronous device on the front. And an in-house-developed 183 kW permanent-magnet motor on the rear axle. They together deliver a peachy combined 300 kW and 660 Nm. They say it will run for 500 kilometres on a single charge of its 82 kWh battery that’s supposed to take 27 minutes to recharge to 80% on 200 kW.
Which is fantastic if you live and drive in Europe, or urban America. Where every garage forecourt has a battery of six or twenty 150 kW or better recharge stations, and city centres dozens of bays dedicated to EV charging. But this, ladies and gentlemen, is Africa. Yes, there are 130 kW stations popping up. But they’re still spread around the most obscure venues and can generally only charge one, maybe two cars at a time.
We tried, in vain to recharge our Recharge Twin on public stations. But they were either useless 22 kW chargers that took five hours to add less than 20%. Or they were nice strong ones. With three cars waiting in line to use them and we quite simply never had the time to wait. Home charging added about the same in a day and a half. The XC40 Recharge Twin Motor of course comes with a complimentary home wall charger.
Still down to African REchargE challenges
They tell us that will recharge overnight. But what happens when you venture out? Now there’s the other half of the problem. There’s no way on God’s green earth that this car will ever travel 500 km on a single charge. If you only ever travel downhill, perhaps. See driving to town is all downhill for us. So it looked great that way, as we more or less matched the readout. But coming home, we used 160 km range to drive 70. Go figure!
Our performance tests on the other hand proved Twin Motor to even quicker than the claimed just 4.8 seconds to 100 km/h. Top end is Volvo-spoilsport limited to 180 km/h. Forget about top end, but that’s bezerk acceleration from a little family SUV. It feels solid on the road, and ride is smooth and sophisticated. But this Volvo lacks the sort of suspension finesse we’ve come to expect from peer BMWs and Mercs.
Unlike them, and even if it’s ever so subtle, you still feel this car’s heft come through. There’s a perpetual yo-yo in the ride. It comes through clearer on a bumpy road, when turning and in braking. The more so the more you push it. Nothing that we’d write home about, but you’re consistently, if ever so delicately reminded of this one’s mass.
Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin goes like stink
In conclusion, the Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin possesses an unnecessary turn of speed. It goes like stink. It may not be as sophisticated as some rivals on the road, but it’s still mighty comfy and subtle to drive. Recharge Twin also has some local charging challenges, but the bucksie wall box will solve much of that, close enough to home.
Yet the XC40 is an easy enough car to live with every day, especially if you’re still considering the switch to electric. There’s nothing special inside, but Twin is very well stacked and thoughtfully cobbled together with some cool trim finishes in a typically Volvo sense of comfort, style and safety to try help justify that hefty electric premium.
Is that a premium worth paying? Well, that’s entirely up to you. Up to how much you really want to switch to electric and how important that really is to you. If you happen to exist within that narrow bracket and this one’s in your price range, better you go take a look before making the EV call. In that case, the Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin should be a very strong contender. – Michele Lupini
ROAD TESTED: Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin Motor EV
Motors: 2x electric
Output: 300 kW 660 Nm combined
Drive: Direct AWD
Battery: 82 kWh lithium-ion
TESTED:
0-60 km/h: 2.20sec
0-100 km/h: 4.44 sec
0-120 km/h: 6.12 sec
0-160 km/h: 11.61 sec
400m: 13.0 sec @ 163 km/h
80-120 km/h: 2.97 sec
120-160 km/h: 5.48 sec
CLAIMED:
VMax: 180 km/h
Energy Use: 19.4 kWh/100 km
CO2: 0 g/km local
Range: 500 km
Warranty/Service: 5y 100K/5y 100K km
LIST PRICE: R1.298M
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