Volvo's electrification program continues apace. For 2022, we get the Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin Ultimate---with a great big surprise.
The XC40 is a familiar, if not exactly common sight on American roads...having been here a few model years. My last review was almost two years ago on the old TireKicker site. And if you're thinking, okay, fine, it's electric, you're missing a chunk of the story here.
That gasoline-powered XC40 I drove two years ago? That was the T5---the hot one. It makes 248 horsepower, compared to T4 models, which only manage 187.
The XC40 Recharge Twin Ultimate? 402 horsepower. 486 pounds per foot of torque. We're talking 0-60 in 4.3 seconds. That's exactly as fast as the 2022 Lexus IS 500 F SPORT Performance I reviewed in February. It's 6/10ths of a second quicker than the Acura TLX Type S.
It is only 2/10ths of a second slower to 60 than the Dodge Durango SRT 392 AWD. Imagine being the driver of any of those bona-fide sports cars and not being able to dust off a gray Swedish RAV4.
Range suffers a bit, at an estimated 223 miles per charge. But it is DC fast charging compatible and buyers get a year or 250kw worth of free charging at Electrify America stations nationwide.
Once you get past the "Herregud, det här är snabbt" after you floor it, the XC40 Recharge Twin Ultimate settles into traditional Volvo attributes of room, quality materials, clear and logical layouts and safety features.
The base price of $58,150 buys a removable and folding load floor, keyless entry and keyless drive, a power-operated tailgate, power folding rear head restraints, front and rear park assist, a power passenger seat, high-pressure headlight cleaners, adaptive cruise control, a heat pump for the HVAC system, a 360-degree surround-view camera, a Harman Kardon premium audio system and 20-inch five-double spoke black diamond cut alloy wheels.
The sore point is still Volvo's decision to partner with Google for an Android-based audio system that, as of this writing, still does not have Apple CarPlay compatibility. It's promised "soon" as an over-the-air software update. I'm not going to go into the whole rant about this. I did it once, in December's review of the 2022 Volvo S90 B6 AWD R-Design, I stand by it---all eleven paragraphs of it---and nobody has asked me to tone it down. Frankly, I suspect there's more than a few people at Volvo who agree. Our tester had only two extra-cost options, $695 for the Thunder Grey Metallic paint and $150 for a heated steering wheel. With $1,095 destination charge, the as-tested price of the 2022 Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin Ultimate is $60,090.
If saving the planet and shocking the daylights out of sports car drivers at stoplights sounds like a fun combination, the 2022 Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin Ultimate could be your kind of car.
