Has Volvo nailed the formula and created a plug-in hybrid that doesn't feel like a science experiment to drive? The 2020 Volvo XC40 Recharge Plug-In Hybrid T5 R-Design (mouth full) is Volvo's smallest plug-in hybrid SUV. It has a driving range of 46km on full EV mode (28.5 miles) and a combined fuel economy of 2.0L/100km (or 117.5mpg). But is it worth the big price jump over the XC40 T5 R-Design? Paul Maric hits the road to find out!
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-volvo-xc40-recharge-plug-in-hybrid-t5-r-design-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:06
Interior: 03:49
Infotainment: 04:53
Features: 06:17
Practicality: 07:26
On the Road: 10:30
Verdict: 17:07
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#volvo #review #hybrid #xc40 #pluginhybrid @VolvoCars @VolvoCarsAus
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-volvo-xc40-recharge-plug-in-hybrid-t5-r-design-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:06
Interior: 03:49
Infotainment: 04:53
Features: 06:17
Practicality: 07:26
On the Road: 10:30
Verdict: 17:07
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
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#volvo #review #hybrid #xc40 #pluginhybrid @VolvoCars @VolvoCarsAus
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Car behind me, the Volvo XC40. It's one of my favourite small SUVs.
00:05 It exists in a world full of boring SUVs that are all kind of the same,
00:09 but this one's brand new because it is the
00:13 Volvo XC40 Recharge Plug-in Hybrid T5R design.
00:18 That means it has a plug to recharge it. It is a plug-in hybrid.
00:22 It is all new for Volvo, and it now means that they have a plug-in hybrid available across each of their SUVs.
00:27 This starts off in Australia at just under $65,000,
00:32 so it is a step up in price over the next level down,
00:35 but I'll run you through why and all the features in just a second.
00:38 It competes with cars like the new MINI Countryman Hybrid,
00:41 also the Escape Plug-in Hybrid, and finally the Lexus UX.
00:45 Today, we're going to do a detailed review of Volvo's new plug-in hybrid car.
00:49 If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:51 you can use the time codes up on the screen there,
00:53 or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and you'll see the chapters below,
00:56 and if you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could hit the subscribe button,
00:59 follow it up with the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive a very nice-looking blue car.
01:04 Now, before we have a look at the exterior design, this is where you charge your XC40.
01:10 There is a problem, though. This is a Type 1 plug,
01:12 and that's in a world where virtually everything now is the Type 2 standard,
01:16 so it is a bit disappointing that you'll have to get an adapter if you want to charge on a Type 2 station.
01:22 Anyway, you have seven colours you can pick from, and all but black is an extra $1,150.
01:27 I'm in love with this blue colour.
01:28 I don't know what it is about it, but it has a really nice sheen to it,
01:32 and it just looks really good offset against the black there.
01:35 So, the plug-in hybrid version comes exclusively as R-Design in Australia,
01:39 which is this sportier-looking package.
01:41 So, you can see some of these black highlights. It's not a matte black, it's like a glossy black,
01:45 and I think it works really well with that blue and offset against the chrome around that Volvo logo.
01:50 You have 211mm of ground clearance.
01:53 That is how much room you have before you start whacking things underneath the body.
01:57 That's actually pretty generous for an SUV in this segment.
02:00 It means you can do, I'm going to say, light off-roading,
02:03 but you're not going to do that because this is front-wheel drive only,
02:05 but in theory, you could drive over something that was near a section of road that wasn't on a sealed surface.
02:11 That's what I mean by off-road.
02:12 Now, this car only weighs 30kg more than the model beneath it.
02:16 That is because the model beneath it is all-wheel drive.
02:19 This electric version is front-wheel drive only,
02:22 so it pairs that internal combustion motor with an electric motor and a battery pack that I'll run you through shortly.
02:27 Front parking sensors, and then if we have a look at these headlights, full LED headlights,
02:31 and I love this Thor's hammer here that also acts as the indicator as well.
02:36 Let me show you the wheels.
02:37 These are Whopper's 20-inch alloy wheels.
02:41 They kind of give me the shivers because it means this probably isn't going to ride well.
02:45 Adaptive suspension is optional across the XC40 range,
02:48 so I'll be keen to see how this feels on 20-inch alloy wheels.
02:51 But just on the design, love the way they look.
02:54 They've got this brushed chrome look on the front,
02:57 and then it's offset by this matte black.
02:59 Really makes the car stand out nicely, and then you've got this plastic stuff around the edges.
03:04 Let me know in the comments below, do you think this actually looks good on an SUV?
03:08 I think they all have them.
03:10 I don't really know what it's meant to show everyone,
03:12 but let me know what your thoughts are on this in the comments below.
03:14 Now, R-Design also picks up all of these black highlights and the black roof.
03:18 Again, that offsets nicely with that blue body.
03:21 This has the optional panoramic sunroof on it.
03:23 Privacy glass, come around to the back.
03:25 So here's the petrol filler, by the way, another R-Design badge up the top.
03:29 Look at these taillights.
03:30 So this is what I was talking about before, that the XC40 feels like a shrunken version of a '60 or a '90.
03:35 You can see with the taillights, they've kind of just condensed them off those bigger SUVs.
03:40 Yeah, I just love the way that it looks.
03:41 Big Volvo badge there as well.
03:43 Let me know in the comments below, do you agree that the XC40 is a good-looking SUV,
03:47 or do I need to get myself a new set of glasses?
03:49 Let's talk interior.
03:50 One of the main reasons I like the XC40 so much is how nicely this is all laid out
03:55 and how much thought has been put into the surfaces that people often complain about.
03:59 So you've got all this soft-touch stuff along the dashboard, and I'll test that out in a second.
04:03 But have a look here.
04:04 You've got this recycled sort of carpet material.
04:07 Well, I think it's recycled.
04:08 Inside the door inlays too.
04:10 You've got this cool textured material, and then the speaker covers have that sort of metallic finish to them.
04:15 Really feels quite high-end and premium, despite the fact this isn't really too high-end of a car.
04:22 How soft-touch is that soft-touch dashboard?
04:25 We have our durometer here.
04:26 It measures from 0 to 100 on the hardness scale, where 0 is soft and 100 is hard.
04:30 This is to test how soft-touch a soft-touch dashboard is.
04:35 OK, that's not too bad.
04:37 Let's try this center armrest.
04:40 Got a shot.
04:41 That's pretty reasonable too.
04:42 So overall, quite impressed with this.
04:44 Build quality feels pretty good.
04:46 This car's built in Belgium.
04:48 XC60's built in China, so they're kind of built all over the place, but for the most part, this all feels great.
04:53 Let's talk infotainment.
04:55 Volvo uses the same screen across all of their cars.
04:58 It's a 9-inch portrait screen.
05:00 If you want a detailed review of Volvo's infotainment system, you can click up here to watch our separate video.
05:06 But today, I'm going to take you through a brief overview so you can get a feel for it.
05:09 So let's talk audio first.
05:11 AM, FM, DAB plus digital radio, plus the ability to stream over Bluetooth or a connected device.
05:18 Satellite navigation is in this little box here.
05:20 You can then go full screen.
05:22 Pretty good system.
05:23 Comes with traffic overlays, and it's very straightforward to use.
05:26 That's backed up by voice recognition, so you can enter full addresses using the voice recognition system.
05:31 And the whole screen is divided into these sections with a home shortcut button down the bottom.
05:36 Inbuilt into the system is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but keep in mind, it is wired,
05:40 not a wireless system.
05:42 Climate controls are down the bottom here.
05:44 They're fairly simple to operate, but the only problem is while you're driving,
05:47 they can be a little bit fiddly to use while you're on the move.
05:50 Finally, you can also swipe across this screen to enable and disable some of the safety technology,
05:56 and also the critical functions here for the plug-in hybrid.
05:59 I'll run through those a little later on.
06:01 And finally, you have the ability to add applications to the car, such as Spotify.
06:05 You've got weather and a couple of other bits and pieces there.
06:08 So it is an easy-to-use infotainment system.
06:10 The only downside to it all is that it can get quite smudgy,
06:14 because you have to touch it, and it leaves fingerprints everywhere.
06:17 Moving on to the other features that you get.
06:19 Dual-zone climate control.
06:20 On the safety front, you have low and high-speed autonomous emergency braking
06:24 with blind spot monitor built into the mirror, a lane-keeping assistant.
06:27 There's also a pilot assist, which is a self-steering function for cruising on highways and stuff.
06:33 Works okay.
06:34 Not amazing, though. Could do with a little bit of extra work.
06:36 Electric seats with seat heating for the front row.
06:40 And as part of that, you also get heated steering wheel.
06:43 Keep in mind that some of these features are going to be optional,
06:45 so just make sure you check the spec before you buy the car.
06:48 Don't just listen to what I tell you,
06:49 'cause specs are going to be different depending on where you're watching this.
06:52 There's also two USB ports and a 12-volt outlet.
06:54 You get an auto-dimming rear vision mirror, radar cruise control,
06:58 along with an eight-speaker Harman Kardon stereo.
07:01 What does the key look like?
07:02 Here it is. Actually, it looks pretty cool.
07:04 It's got, like, a leather surface on it with the Volvo symbol there.
07:07 Along the side, you have lock, unlock, boot.
07:10 A little bit more leather stuff. Probably not leather, but...
07:13 Anyway, and then over on this side, you have a panic alarm as well.
07:17 This is a proximity sensing key, so just keep that in your pocket.
07:20 Grab the door handle, and you can also use any of the other door handles to lock the car as well.
07:25 And then there is a push-button start.
07:26 Let's talk practicality, and we'll start with storage.
07:29 Where are you going to put your phone?
07:30 So there's plenty of phone storage, but there's also a wireless phone charge.
07:33 You can slot it down the front there.
07:35 Fits big phones as well very easily, and then there's room either side as well.
07:39 Bottle storage.
07:40 You've got two cup holders here that have varying depths,
07:44 and they both have little grip tabs on them.
07:46 You've also got stacks of room in the door,
07:48 so you can fit a bottle in plus, I don't know, like, books and keys and other random things.
07:54 Under the driver's seat, you have, like, a tray that you can put a wallet
07:57 and other bits and pieces in that you can't see from the outside.
08:00 Centre console. This one's interesting because it's not like a deep centre console.
08:03 It sits quite flat, and the reason for that is the batteries,
08:06 and I'll run you through those in just a second.
08:08 Glovebox. Eh, could be bigger, but it is air-conditioned.
08:14 And this little thing over here as well.
08:16 Now, let's talk comfort. Love these seats.
08:18 So leather and then Alcantara.
08:21 They hug you in really nicely.
08:23 They're very comfortable to sit in, and then these front bolsters extend as well.
08:28 The steering wheel sits nicely in the hand.
08:30 The paddle shift is there as well.
08:31 And all the controls are really easy to reach,
08:33 so you never have to really take your eyes off the road for too long to get to anything.
08:36 I would have liked to see a head-up display, though.
08:39 So, back seat. It's a small SUV, but that doesn't mean you have no room back here.
08:44 This is what surprises me the most.
08:45 My seat is quite far back, but I still have a really decent amount of knee room,
08:50 loads of toe room, headroom's good as well, even with this optional panoramic sunroof.
08:55 And again, it just feels nice back here.
08:57 You've got this Alcantara, the leather, all those door linings are that carpeted material.
09:02 Doesn't feel like they've gone stingy with anything back here.
09:05 Center armrest with two cup holders.
09:08 Let's see how it fits the bottle.
09:09 Fits well.
09:10 They've got these rubber teeth on them, so that's not going to be moving around too much.
09:14 And then storage in the doors, but that's pointless.
09:17 Can't actually fit a bottle.
09:19 You get rear air vents. They look pretty cool.
09:22 Headed seats, and then a USB-C outlet as well, along with map pockets in the back of the seats.
09:28 And ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats.
09:31 Actually, my bad.
09:33 I do make mistakes every now and then.
09:34 Eagle has just pointed out there is a bottle holder down there.
09:37 Let's talk cargo space.
09:39 So it's got one of these features that if you have hands full of stuff and you can't quite reach down there,
09:43 you just kick it with your foot.
09:45 You just kick it with your foot, and then it opens.
09:48 There you go. Second time lucky.
09:50 460 litres of cargo space in here.
09:53 Under the floor there, you've got a space saver spare tyre.
09:57 A little bit of storage on either side.
09:58 A 12-volt outlet.
09:59 You've got some hooks, a couple of elastic nets.
10:03 Now, let's get this out of the way because I'll show you how it all folds down.
10:09 That's fairly easy to pull out of that slot.
10:11 And then the seats, you basically just push this down, and then you drop the seats.
10:16 Away they go. Now, that reveals just under 1,400 litres of cargo space.
10:24 So despite this looking quite small from the outside, and it being a plug-in hybrid,
10:28 there is actually a fair bit of cargo capacity.
10:31 Now, before we go for a drive, I want to run you through the plug-in hybrid components of this car.
10:36 It uses a 10.7 kilowatt-hour battery.
10:39 Now, where does that battery live?
10:40 You would have noticed that the boot is perfectly normal size.
10:43 Well, it actually lives in the centre tunnel.
10:45 So it's pretty amazing that they've been able to build this platform in such a way that they can have a plug-in hybrid
10:50 and it doesn't detract from space inside the cabin.
10:53 So that runs the whole centre of the car, and it's nicely concealed.
10:56 That means you get 46 kilometres of pure electric driving range,
11:00 and it takes two and a half hours to charge at home on a 3.7 kilowatt charger.
11:05 It's a single-phase AC onboard charger. There's no DC charging here at all.
11:09 Like we mentioned at the start of the video, it's a Type 1 plug as well, which is a little bit disappointing.
11:13 So what is powering the XC40? First off, you have an internal combustion engine.
11:20 It's a one and a half litre, three-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine.
11:25 Makes 135 kilowatts of power, 265 newton metres of torque.
11:30 That's pretty reasonable for a little three-pot engine, and it comes with a raspy and unique sound,
11:34 which is what makes it quite enjoyable to listen to.
11:37 It's mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.
11:41 Now, you know, if you've watched our other videos before, that I'm really not a fan of dual-clutch transmissions.
11:46 This one, I don't know where it's from or what it is, but it is sensational.
11:50 They really have nailed it. You can't even tell it's a dual-clutch.
11:54 Big tick to Volvo there, you never really feel it interacting.
11:56 I don't know whether that's the hybrid system that's filling in that gap that you normally feel clunkiness with, but yeah, good job.
12:03 The electric motor is 61 kilowatts of power and 160 newton metres of torque.
12:08 That all combines to a power output of 195 kilowatts of power.
12:13 Now, if you do want to get a better idea of how plug-in hybrid systems work and how they determine peaks,
12:18 have a look at our Hyundai IONIQ P-HEV review. You can click up there to watch that.
12:22 Now, unlike the model below this, which is all-wheel drive, this is strictly front-wheel drive only.
12:26 So you have both the internal combustion engine and the electric motor servicing the front axle.
12:31 That offers you a combined fuel economy of two litres per 100...
12:35 Good song, but not required at this time.
12:40 So that gives you a combined fuel economy of two litres per 100 kilometres.
12:44 That's factoring in the first part of your journey is going to be on electric,
12:47 and then the rest of it is going to be with the internal combustion engine.
12:51 So we on the road here ran out of electricity, had about 20 kilometres of range left,
12:56 and then did the rest with the internal combustion engine.
12:59 And we were using around four litres per 100 kilometres,
13:02 which I think is pretty reasonable for a car that's going to be mixing in between
13:07 full electric and then the internal combustion hybrid mode.
13:10 Let's talk about the drive modes. So if you hit the drive mode button, you have hybrid,
13:13 which is the hybrid mode. You have power, which is for sporty driving.
13:17 Pure, which is an eco mode, and then off-road, which...
13:21 I don't know why they have that setting for a front-wheel drive car,
13:24 but I'm keen to see what this is like in the power setting. So we'll click on that.
13:29 I immediately feel the petrol engine kick on, and it does it really smoothly.
13:33 You never really notice the difference when you are accelerating and that petrol engine kicks on.
13:39 Let's just have a little look at this. I'll give it a quick stab here.
13:44 It's got a pretty cool engine, though. That three-cylinder, they all have quite a unique sound.
13:50 And this is no different. It actually feels really good.
13:52 You get a surge of torque from the hybrid components,
13:55 and then the petrol engine comes in and fills that gap.
13:59 So how quick is this car? Even though it is just front-wheel drive,
14:02 it has an official 0 to 100 kilometre an hour claim of 7.3 seconds.
14:08 This is what that looks like.
14:11 (ENGINE REVS)
14:14 So let's talk about handling. Not a great deal to talk about.
14:23 There is a bit of body roll, and if you do go for a bit of a punt,
14:26 you will feel that it does weigh a fair bit. It's about 1700 kilos here with the plug-in hybrid.
14:32 So it is getting a little porky. And look, it's not a sports car.
14:35 I don't think it's meant to be. It's confidence-inspiring enough, but it's no sports car.
14:40 I think that's how you'd sum up the handling.
14:41 So if we switch out of sport mode back into hybrid mode, let's talk about the ride.
14:47 So 20-inch alloy wheels, you would expect it to be absolutely horrendous.
14:50 It's actually good. So it's not perfect. It is a little bit firm and a little bit choppy,
14:55 but it is softly damp. So if you do hit some continuous undulations, it kind of bounces up and down.
15:01 But then those brittle potholes and that type of thing, you feel it sort of strike through the cabin.
15:05 But for the most part, it feels good.
15:07 And in and around the city where you're going to be spending most of your time with this car,
15:10 it does the job nicely. If the ride is a bit busy for you, you can get adaptive dampers as an option.
15:16 It's Volvo's 4C system, so it's effectively just adaptive damping,
15:20 and it kind of just changes the way the ride feels in comfort and then in sport mode.
15:24 What about brake pedal feel? Often it's not that good in a plug-in hybrid.
15:28 It's kind of the same here. It feels okay.
15:31 And I keep looking down here because as I roll out of the throttle,
15:34 it actually pushes the brake pedal a little bit.
15:36 So a lot of these cars have a regen mode,
15:40 and that regen mode uses the car's momentum to charge the battery.
15:43 And in every other EV, you just roll out of the throttle and it slows down,
15:48 whereas this is physically pushing the brake pedal.
15:50 And the result of that is that when you go to use the brakes,
15:52 you can kind of feel it going back through the gears as it slows down,
15:56 and it's not very uniform. You just sort of hit a hard face,
16:00 and then you have to keep pushing for it to slow down.
16:02 It's really quite hard to explain. Find yourself a hill like this,
16:06 slot the gear lever down once, and it goes into a B mode.
16:09 Now, B mode is interesting. That is effectively using the car's momentum to charge the battery.
16:14 So when you find yourself on a big old hill like this,
16:17 just leave it in B mode and it starts coasting down the hill.
16:20 That thing that I mentioned before about it pushing the brake pedal,
16:22 you notice extra here as well because it leans into the brake pedal in B mode
16:26 to regenerate as much energy as it can.
16:29 Visibility at the front and sides is excellent. These wing mirrors are massive.
16:33 Visibility at the rear is really good as well. So I can see clearly out there.
16:36 There's a big window and there's really no blind spots that I can think of.
16:40 Everywhere around the car, I'm able to spot what's going on around me.
16:43 The noise is a real highlight of the XC40.
16:46 It's really quiet inside the car. When it is humming along here in the hybrid mode,
16:50 it's just silent. It wafts along nicely. And unlike some plug-in hybrids,
16:54 it actually gets along nicely on EV mode.
16:57 So you can get into the throttle and not be too worried about it not having enough go.
17:02 And then you've got a little meter here that tells you when the internal combustion engine
17:05 is about to kick on if it needs a little bit more torque.
17:08 So should you buy this car? I reckon you should. It's actually really impressive.
17:12 Most people are doing less than 40 kilometres a day to and from work.
17:16 So it does mean that you could effectively travel free of charge without ever using petrol
17:20 if you're just doing those commutes to and from work.
17:23 And then if you ever need to go further, you have that perky little three-cylinder engine
17:26 that is really entertaining and the dual-clutch gearbox isn't overly frustrating.
17:30 It is let down by brake pedal feel that isn't fantastic and the ride can be a little bit firm
17:34 on these 20-inch alloy wheels. But outside of that, it's really well-priced for the entire package.
17:38 You have plenty of room inside and I don't know, I reckon it looks good.
17:41 So let me know in the comments below, what do you think of the XC40 Recharge Plug-in Hybrid T5R design?
17:47 Do you think it looks good? Do you think it serves the right purpose?
17:49 And do you think it's priced well as well? Have you ordered one?
17:52 Let me know everything in the comments below. Now, if you did enjoy this video,
17:55 please hit the like button. Don't forget to hit subscribe and also follow it up with the bell icon
17:59 you can find out every single time we drive something new. But until next time, take it easy.