Volvo’s new Recharge car line concept asks the question: Do you want a new Volvo with a cord or without one? Over the next five years, Volvo Cars will launch a fully electric car every year, as it seeks to make all-electric cars 50 percent of global sales by 2025, with the rest hybrids.
Recharge will be the overarching name for all chargeable Volvos with a fully electric and plug-in hybrid powertrain. The XC40 Recharge, based on Volvo’s award-winning and best-selling XC40, a small SUV. This is the beginning of a family of fully electric Volvos and represents a true milestone for Volvo Cars.
Timing of the Volvo Recharge
From early 2020 customers entering the Volvo Cars website will first be asked whether they want a Volvo Recharge car or not. To further encourage electric driving, every Volvo Recharge plug-in hybrid model will come with free electricity for a year, provided through a refund for the average electricity cost during that period.
The XC40 will have a state-of-the-art, fully electric all-wheel-drive powertrain that offers a range of over 400 km (WLTP) on a single charge and output of 408hp. The battery charges to 80 % of its capacity in 40 mins on a fast-charger system.
To meet the anticipated growth in demand for its Recharge cars, Volvo Cars will triple production capacity for electrified cars and will as of next year prepare a Designer’s Choice selection of popular Recharge models, offering the potential for radically reduced delivery times. Volvo Cars aim for plug-in hybrid cars to make up 20 percent of total sales in 2020.
Android Operating System
The Recharge line will be the first Volvo with a brand new infotainment system powered by Google’s Android operating system.
The Android-powered infotainment system is fully integrated with Volvo On Call, the company’s digital connected services platform. Via Volvo On Call plug-in hybrid drivers can track how much time they spend driving on electric power.
Carbon Footprint Plan
To realize the significant 40 percent reduction of its CO2 footprint per car by 2025, the company has devised a number of ambitions for its operations. The previously communicated goal of generating 50 percent of global sales from fully electric cars by 2025 is one, which would result in a 50 percent reduction in tailpipe carbon emissions per car between 2018 and 2025.
Other short-term ambitions include a 25 percent reduction of CO2 emissions related to its global supply chain by 2025, a 25 percent share of recycled plastics in new Volvo cars by 2025 and a 25 percent reduction of carbon emissions generated by the company’s overall operations, including manufacturing and logistics.
The XC40 Recharge is everything customers expect from a Volvo.
Volvo Cars are the first conventional automaker to commit to all-out electrification and phasing out internal combustion engine-powered cars. As of this year, every new Volvo launched will be electrified and the company today also launches its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge. Starting with the XC40 Recharge, Volvo Cars will disclose the average lifecycle carbon footprint of each new model.
The XC40 Recharge is the first car in Volvo Cars’ new Recharge car line. Recharge will be the overarching name for all chargeable Volvos with a fully electric and plug-in hybrid powertrain. The Recharge car line aims to further boost sales of Volvo Cars’ electrified cars and encourage plug-in hybrid drivers via incentives to use Pure mode as much as possible.
Every Volvo model in the range includes a Recharge option, from the small XC40 SUV via the 60 Series cars to the company’s flagship, the large XC90 SUV. Volvo Cars will be the only carmaker to offer a plug-in variant on every model in its line-up.
The XC40 Recharge and the Recharge car line are also tangible proof points of the company’s ambitious new action plan representing concrete actions in line with the Paris climate agreement and support Volvo Cars’ ambition to become a climate-neutral company by 2040. Read more about Volvo Cars’ climate plan HERE.
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