Volvo C40 Recharge review: £47k single-motored version with glass roof & 269-mile range is an excellent EV

VOLVO has not sold as many cars as planned over the past year.

No one has, due to a myriad of reasons too tedious to go into right now (because they include the words “supply” and “chain”).

What is going the right way for the Swedish firm and its mission to be all-electric by 2030 is the increased number of vehicles it is shifting that have a plug.

More than half of Volvos sold in Europe in February were electrified Recharge models.

That number will undoubtedly increase with the new single-motor C40 Recharge.

Previously only available as a dual-motor 408hp rocketship costing £58,000, it was overpowered and overpriced.

Now you can opt for one motor less, a more appropriate 231hp and a saving of £11,000, while still getting up to 269 miles from the 69kWh battery. Excellent.

For those who don’t know, C40 is an XC40 in a lower-slung coupe guise.

Less practical but more expensive.

That’s usually how it works.

However, that’s not strictly true here.

The new single-motor C40 Recharge costs £1,350 more than a similar-spec XC40.

But it gains a massive panoramic glass roof as standard, which would doubtless cost at least that as an option.

This see-through ceiling also sheds some welcome additional light on to what is an intelligently designed, premium-feeling interior.

While the cabin is completely vegan-friendly, it’s not Apple CarPlay-friendly.

That is because Volvo and Google have got into bed together to produce their own Android operating system featuring built-in services. And it’s ace.

Pop your destination in Google Maps and it will tell you just how much battery you will have when you get there and what will be left when you get back.

It is disturbingly accurate, so once you learn to trust it – and not what the sales patter claims the range is – you can put any range anxiety in the recycling bin.

With a superfast 150kW charger you can add 80 per cent battery charge in around 40 minutes.

Plug it into a three-pin household socket and it takes 40 hours.

Number-crunching aside, the C40 looks the part.

It is right up there with the most handsome EVs on the market.

Lovely touches include the felt-lined door pockets; beautifully backlit translucent dash and door trim; separate storage for the charging cables under the bonnet; and a foldable boot floor that can both divide the 430-litre space and reveal an extra sub-floor storage area.

They feel like bonus gifts for the driver.

The ride is rather soft, which will suit some.

Rear visibility is terrible (thank goodness for the camera) and it does feel bigger driving than it really is.

But the seats are supremely good and the controlled acoustics leave you quietly cocooned in a place you will want to be.

While the C40 Recharge Twin is quite the rocket in a raincoat, the sensibly slower single-motor C40 will help Volvo get to Net Zero that much faster.