The C40EV: A Bridge Product with Room for Improvement

As I sat behind the wheel of the Volvo C40EV, I couldn't help but think that this car was not a ground-up design from start to finish. Rather, it's a bridge product between Volvo's old products and their new cars. This is evident in its software issues, consistency, and overall experience, which left me with a sense of déjà vu. As someone who has owned past-generation Volvo cars, I can attest that I've already gone through some of these headaches.

One of the main complaints I had was about the quietness of the cabin. The reviewer admits that it's not as quiet as it should be. This is a valid concern, as a car with this price point shouldn't have such issues. However, I can relate to this issue, having previously owned Volvo cars from the past generation. They weren't exactly known for their silence.

The C40EV also had some drivability issues, particularly when it comes to modulating the brake pedal. It's far too stiff and doesn't feel natural to drive. As someone who appreciates a more nimble car, this is disappointing. But it's worth noting that this is a small car, so it should be nimble by default.

Another issue I had was with the ride quality and suspension setup. The reviewer mentions that it feels like they're sitting on top of the car, which is not ideal for long drives. I also agree that it could use a more compliant ride. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in terms of handling, but it's something to consider when driving on bumpy roads.

Now, let's talk about acceleration. The C40EV has an impressive 0-60mph time, making it feel quick and responsive. However, once you hit highway speeds, the car feels more like a luxury sedan than an electric vehicle. It doesn't quite live up to its potential in terms of driving dynamics.

In terms of final thoughts, I believe that Volvo got it right with this drivetrain – EV motors and battery pack – but the price point is just too high. If they were to expand the battery pack size and put it into a larger model like the XC60 or XC90, I'd be back in the market for a new car. This would resolve some of the biggest issues with their existing products, such as stressed four-cylinder engines.

Overall, I think the C40EV is an 80th percentile product – it's good, but not great. If you're a city user or have access to charging infrastructure, this car will do everything you need it to do. However, for those who want a more refined driving experience and don't mind the trade-offs that come with electric vehicles, there may be better options available.

One thing I would like to see improved is the stability of the infotainment system. Volvo's Android Automotive platform has always been a bit unstable, and it still seems to have some bugs. As an iOS user myself, this was particularly frustrating. However, for those who are Android users or prefer to stick with their existing ecosystem, I can imagine that this would be a major issue.

Finally, the usability of this car could use some work. The reviewer mentions that there were some issues with the electronics, which is something that Volvo needs to address ASAP. If you're someone who cares about infotainment and usability, you may want to think twice before purchasing the C40EV.

As I conclude my thoughts on the C40EV, it's clear that this car has potential, but it's not quite there yet. With some refinements to the software, consistency, and overall experience, I believe Volvo could create a truly excellent electric vehicle. Until then, I'll be keeping an eye on their future products – particularly those with EV drivetrains.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enyou're looking for an electric vehicle you don't want hybridization you don't want a gasoline engine and then you're looking for a volvo and then you find the c40 which in many regards is just like the xc40 i'm not quite sure what's different but i'll tell you this if you're someone that doesn't want a car you don't want a hatchback you don't want a wagon or a traditional cuv but then you're like ah no i'd like a car that was kind of like a coupe but doesn't have all the usability of a cuv but then gets raised ride height and better road presence that's the c40 in a nutshell i don't even know what i just said but what i do know is the interior space because the exterior is quite subjective if you i've never seen a volvo before you may look at this and think wow this is pretty pretty clean and that's the overall aesthetic that volvo is trying to do there are minimal gimmicks technology aside in a vehicle like this in modern volvo design you have a great use of materials so let's start with that looking at the door you see this blue carpet that carries over onto the interior space and you think oh that's cute well it is because it's recycled materials they're trying to do that now more in automotive design reclaimed or recycled materials so they're not constantly hitting resources so you have these leather feeling textures or vinyl textures on most of the seating surfaces the doors you have alloy and alloy look materials like on the speaker grilles or the handles and then you have this kind of matte chrome plastic that's on the steering wheel and much of the input points a lot of matte textures here like on the steering wheel great it's it's not shiny so you don't get a bunch of fingerprints on it but they do have piano black in like the center console which always looks dirty on pretty much every car it's around the center bezel here for the center infotainment screen and then on the center parts of the seat you have almost like alcantara it's like a micro suede feeling across the seat and then this recycle material for the headliner so overall it's a very interesting space then you get to this plastic that's on the doors by the handle and along the center dash that gets lit up at night it is a texture that looks like grayscale banding from compression on like a video that you upload to the internet and that was the first thing i thought i'm like is it a screen but no when you look it up close it is mirroring that kind of compression artifact let's talk about storage it's good usable there's a huge pocket in the door for bottles your center armrest is pretty big it comes with the traditional volvo garbage can for boogers and like scabs you have a wireless charger here towards the front and some like mini pockets that you can put i don't know gum or makeup or whatever but let's get to the technology before i talk about overall cargo capacity the center gauge cluster has been updated from the older volvo products the dpi is higher which means it's much cleaner looking the text is sharp it's legible and you can go a almost a full screen map here from google maps now let's get on to the infotainment this is updated from the older volvo products called volvo census where they created this kind of user experience that required you to kind of swipe back and forth between three panels so they have now dumped their their own self-made version of this and gone to android automotive and this runs android version 11 and it is designed 100 for vehicles and you'll see other manufacturers doing this and what they've done is they've reskinned it to make it look like the volvo census their old one with google os behind it now when you dig deeper in the menus it looks exactly what you expect from an android smartphone including settings and all of that when you look at the menu structure it is kind of like that this this panel system that they do where you have their your four most used things which is google assistant your phone what media is playing and then of course google maps that great thing about this is because it's a connected car to the internet google maps is always there and the google assistant's always there assuming you have an android smartphone in google accounts because it will ask you to log in with your gmail or google account and then it pairs up and you can download apps and all that fun stuff and if you do like me i have a samsung phone it's a pretty seamless experience but if you're an ios user like jack and his compatriots they complained endlessly that there's no ios real ios support in terms of apple carplay he said he had a ton of crashes maps stopped working his phone stopped working or connecting to the car which is a complete opposite of my experience as soon as i got in here my phone connected like a lightning fast so again they're talking about doing over-the-air updates which the part of having android automotive in here is you're gonna get security patches you're gonna get stability fixes product improvements way quicker than what you get in a forked version of android where manufacturers hacked it up themselves like acura did with theirs they never have updates where it's such a pain in the ass this fixes it but the center screen is definitely older technology the aliasing is bad on the text it's not sharp it doesn't it's not very clear to read compared to the center gauge cluster so anyway i'm going to leave it at that this is you could do a literally a tech review on just infotainment these days seating comfort is great i'm five nine the backs are a little stiff the lower parts are soft the bolsters are really soft so if you come in here and you're short you blast like your lower genitalia or your butt it's not going to do any damage to you there like some higher bolsters do the back seat space is pretty good it's comfortable again it's the seat materials are a good blend of supportiveness and softness if you're a bigger person in the front obviously it's going to sacrifice your backspace with the seats down in the back and the hatch up you can see it's a very usable sized vehicle and i think many people like the fact that this isn't a huge product you can get it in a city but it still has the cargo capacity of most cuvs and jack's going to go in the shop right now and tell you what this is based on and how it's all made underneath the all-new volvo c40 this is the second dedicated ev volvo has recently released here in the united states and it has a mechanical twin the xc40 that is a more ruggedized version of this vehicle which is less aerodynamic this vehicle is about six percent more efficient than that car which means it has a total epa range of 226 miles both vehicles are built on volvo's cma platform which is the same platform that they used for the polestar 2. this platform can be eevee it can be hybrid or can be internal combustion in this vehicle's case it's strut front multi-link rear everything's covered up as you were expecting and there's a good attention to detail when it comes to both aerodynamic materials and nvh materials the total battery pack size is 78 kilowatt hours it has dual motors which produce in the low 400 horsepower and about 492 foot pounds of torque which means this car can do zero to 60 in the mid to low fours which addresses one of the biggest problems with modern volvos and that is their internal combustion drivetrains they aren't reliable they don't produce that much power their gearboxes are slow and they aren't that fuel efficient so hopefully this addresses a lot of those problems so with that i think it's time for mark to go take this thing out for a drive the volvo c40 pure ev see how it gets off the line holy this thing is quick it's really quick for what this is i i really wasn't expecting it because i haven't done much of these launches i've been trying to conserve and drive normal but so this this categorically fixes a majority actually almost all of the problems that i have with volvo drivetrains as a former owner of an xc90 t6 you know supercharger turbocharger 2-liter that struggled to get 19 miles per gallon didn't feel particularly sprightly had a ton of issues with like engine tuning based on temperature it would get inconsistent so now you get rid of that and what you get is a lot of the things that people love about volvo interiors you get the engineering in terms of safety structure and all the things that you care about on a daily commute if you're if you have a family you know you get all of the things that volvo bakes in and you now you just go flying in this thing it's quiet because of it you don't have the the rattly ass four-cylinder effect or any of the the drivetrain issues and the programming for the drive motors and all of that is pretty normal it's typical kind of like first generation stuff there's some a little bit of disconnect between the front and the rear of this and to be completely fair like jack said this is not a pure ev car it's built on a vehicle or a platform that was trying to combine hybridization gasoline engine and then of course you know electric ability so you still have a transmission tunnel here that you don't really need in the back so again it's compromised but as it stands like if you really really love the volvo effect now you have that ev part of it that gets rid of the majority of any issue that you would have had with a volvo to before this now yes the range is not like the ev6 or of course like the ionic five and those vehicles are much less money than this and it to me that's the biggest problem jack also said the same thing he's like this is way too much money for what this is something that wasn't a ground-up thing or like a ground-up design for it to be an eevee he had a ton of issues with software and like consistency and software experience to me i've already gone through some of those headaches being a volvo owner of the past generation cars and i i can make more of an excuse for it um the other thing too is he complained mostly about this is not as quiet as it should be and i would admit this is not a very quiet quiet cabin i feel like they need to do some work there with nvh um for the price point again right i mean like if this was 40 45 000 it would be a different story but at you know pushing 60 it's a different definitely a different thing now in terms of drivability when you start to hustle this like i said about kind of the recharge models where you had the hybridization the brakes are hyperactive it's a very very stiff pedal and it's hard to modulate them i think it's it's just too stiff i'd like to feel it be a little bit more natural steering is pretty quick uh it makes it feel nimble and of course this is a small car so it better be nimble honestly to to be real about it the last thing really to talk about again is ride quality suspension setup and then acceleration so to about a normal speed like 80 miles an hour aside from the wow factor of getting thrown back from the torque this really does pull very very hard all the way up until like 80 miles an hour where you're gonna need to get on the highway nobody is ever going to complain about the acceleration from this now what they might complain about a little bit is it feels like you're sitting on top of this car it feels like you're riding on top of it and it is a little bit stiffer than i expected i feel like it it could use a more compliant ride for what this is and i know this isn't trying to be like a luxury boat but again it is a little bit stiff so that's one thing you're going to want to test out when you do do a test drive and see hey you know is this a soft enough ride for me i like the fact that it feels more nimble um but to me the overall impressions are this is a really good in-between product but for the price it's a very hard sell and i think a lot of people are gonna say that but let's just get right into the final thoughts final thoughts on the c40ev by the end of this video even though it's shorter you know the point this is a bridge product for volvo between their old products and their new cars and i would say if i could take this drivetrain the ev motors and the battery pack and expand the battery pack size a bit and put it in an xc60 or an xc90 i'd be back to being a volvo customer because it resolves the biggest issue with their existing products and that's their drive trains their four cylinders are very stressed they're complicated and this gets rid of a lot of that and it's way faster it's way smoother it's way quieter it does everything you want it to do the problem is the price the problem is this isn't a ground up dedicated ev car so you feel it you notice it so to me you don't buy this you lease it 100 if you can get a good lease deal you buy this you use it for two to three years until the newer products come out and you switch to that if you love volvos because the interior space is still really good even though it feels a little bit on the cheaper side compared to their luxury products the usability is great electronics aside i i think they're in the right direction but they need to fix a few things these got to be quieter they have to be way quieter on the inside the stability of the infotainment which has always been an issue here but should have been resolved with android automotive is not sorted out and if you're an ios user like jack you and you care about infotainment you're going to be like i'm out of here that's how unstable it was being an android user there's still some bugs that should have been again it should be way faster than it is usability should be better okay so you get over that i think it's an overall like 70 to 80th percentile type product i like driving i can see if you're a city user it's a smaller platform smaller smaller size it does everything that you kind of want it to do and you know if you have charging infrastructure you know the 200 plus mile range is more than adequate here for most people so again i'm gonna leave it at that i'll try the xc40 recharge pretty soon and get back to you thanks for watching you\n"