Don't Buy a Tesla... Buy This - Volvo XC40 Recharge EV Review

Fizzle · December 23, 2021

On range: I've had two EV's now 2018 Leaf and the I-Pace. I have not visited a petrol station in a long time!

For daily driving range is effectively infinite. School runs, short commutes, popping to the shops, etc.. for both vehicles I'd charge once a week in my garage @ 4p/kwh (special overnight EV rate)

For trips:

The leaf could realistically only go 100miles at motorway speeds, it would then crawl into its destination and then have to charge overnight. Charging at a service station wasn't really an option because it took so long for so little range. Driving to my sisters house "up north" (220 miles) was not an option. Any yes the passive battery cooling was a huge problem.

The I-Pace can totally do that 220 mile trip an arrive with no juice but there are not any 100kw chargers near our destination so would have been plugging into the house and waiting all night. With some planning we still don't need to let it impact our trip:

Since we have kids and kids have small bladders a pit stop is required anyway. So we drive most of the way up to a big service station that has a bank of 350kw chargers, the kids relieve themselves and we all have some food. Car is fully charged when we get back (water cooled throughout means faster charging). Arrived at our destination with enough charge to do all we need to do.
At some point we go to the Zoo, turns out the Zoo has a large bank of EV chargers right next to the ticket office with a fixed price for all you can 'eat' electricity (£4 I think). This gets us priority parking and a fully charged EV by the time we exit the zoo.
On the way back we do the same pit stop, re-charge the car and ourselves, then drive home arriving with plenty of power.

Since the UK is only 300x600 miles we can drive to most places using this method. I expect it might be different for larger countries, I wouldn't be able to get across France in a day for example. Keeping an eye out for Hydrogen + Battery hybrid EVs for that but BEV is going to remain the king of local travel for those who can recharge it at home.

December 23, 2021

9 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

While this is true, it's also important to note that battery management needs to start becoming a thing that people think about. The BMS of the vehicle could mean a lot. Like using options to charge to only to 90% charge; also the recommended to try staying about 20% charge....that drops the effective range for vehicle longevity to around 250km, which still isn't that bad [but something to keep note of]...or take the Leaf as an example...terrible cooling system causes the range to drastically drop if used in hot climates (and never recover). I'm sure this isn't as bad, but when looking at the range it is important to think about where the vehicle will be in 5-10 years Even Tesla, which has one of the best batteries and management systems still have 95% life after 50,000 km [Bolts appears to be 90-93% depend on which data].

It actually does start worrying me that they use LG Chem batteries though...the two major EV recalls (bolt and kona) have been EV batteries that LG chem has manufactured. So it would always make me a bit skeptical whether or not the batteries used here would be better. At this stage of going EV it could really be disastrous if we get another mass recall due to battery issues. Time will tell though.

Yeah, if I know I'm not going to drive for a while I charge the car to around 60%. Long trips I go to 90%, rarely do I charge it to 100% or let it go down below 20%. In the winter it takes a bit of figuring, but once you know the tricks it's ok.

I'm a little surprised Volvo is owned by a Chinese company now, was a bit surprised when Ford acquired it. But I guess Ford didn't know what to do. Seems China doesn't exactly, either. If I were to make an electric car I'd start over, not recycle a gas car with electrification. Probably why the frunk on this one is useless and has that extra cover to keep the weather out, just an afterthought...