Tried an XC40 Pure Electric this weekend

So we're still looking for the right EV. Most of the ones I'm interested in - Ioniq 5, EV6, GV60, eGV70, EQB, Enyaq and Q4 - are not available even for test drives yet in Australia (the GV60, eGV70 and EQB aren't available anywhere as far as I'm aware). But the XC40 Pure Electric is, so I thought it was worth a try.

It was bigger inside than I expected. While the (petrol) XC60 is much bigger on the outside than an XC40, the interior space isn't wildly different. I could live with that. And the interior was nicely put together and looked great in the front: its one problem was that we'd just been at the Genesis test centre, and their interiors make Volvos (and indeed the Mercedes that we looked at as a refresher yesterday) look a bit cheap. But it was still good: I was impressed.

The back was a mixed bag. Once you were in, there was loads of room in the back seats - more than you'd expect from what looks like a small car. And it didn't have an uncomfortably raised floor in the back like the EQA. And the materials were nice. But the rear doors were narrow: I think the in-laws might struggle to get in and out. The biggest problem, though, was that kink in the bottom of the rear window, kicking up toward the back. It looks good from outside - you can see below that it starts halfway along the back door, and is 3/4 of the way up the window by the time it gets to the back of the back door. But from the inside, it really makes it hard for children to see out from the back seats, and makes it really dark in the back too, even with cream leather. It was even worse than a CH-R. That was a dealbreaker for me: my kids couldn't see out, which would make for unpleasant journeys for them.



The software was simple and easy to use. The 360 camera was really excellent.

The performance was great. It was really very fast. Not Tesla Performance fast, but still, 0-100km/h in 4.9 seconds is still ridiculous. And it was quiet, and mostly comfortable.

But other than the rear window, the other dealbreaker was the ride. It dealt with large bumps well. But on a slightly rough surface (coarse tarmac on the motorway at 100km/h), I could feel every stone set into the tar through the pedals, the steering wheel and the seat. Road noise was way too much at high speed too. I'm guessing this is a result of them having to firm up from the original settings for ICE XC40s, rather than it being a purpose-built EV, but it was excessive - it was far worse than the EQA.

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Oh, and last week we went to look at an iPace. It's a bit more expensive than the other cars we're looking at, but I thought it would be worth a look. I didn't like it at all: the interior felt cramped - far more so than the smaller EQA and XC40 - and old-fashioned. And - weird complaint here - but the rear seat base was too long - my kids found that it went out past their knees so they couldn't sit comfortably. I didn't bother test driving it.

I was surprised: I thought as a ground-up EV it would take advantage of the available space, especially considering that the hood is so short. But there's an incredibly bulky dashboard coming miles back from the windscreen, and that robs the car of space.

 

I do wish someone could come up with a sensible compromise between too many buttons and too many touchscreen sub-menus.

 

Yes. In this case it's like the designers were never children. Or like they don't think children sit in the back seat.

 

Yes. I remember reading that the weird shape of the headlights of Gen 1 Leafs was to move air away from the door mirrors, because the wind noise around door mirrors became so annoying when there was no engine noise.

But this Volvo was really, really bad. Noise levels at 100km/h were significantly higher than in my diesel X3 (on run-flats!) on the same road, as well as being way higher than other EVs I've driven. Vibration was worse than in my X3 too.

Ahha. That explains it. I'd always thought it was ground up.

The packaging was really pretty terrible. The Jag is a big car on the outside, but really quite cramped on the inside.