[imagesource: Volvo]

Sorry, petrolheads, you aren’t going to like this one, but we have to take into consideration that more and more automakers are going electric.

I’m a purist, too, but I also don’t want the planet to die so this is a tough one for me.

With that out of the way, if anyone out there is keen on taking a more environmentally friendly approach to driving, Volvo is making it easier by bringing their all-electric Volvo XC40 Recharge to South African shores in the second half of 2021.

The Volvo XC40 family SUV line-up has been evolving for a while now. When it launched, you could buy it with regular diesel and petrol engines only.

Today, you won’t find diesel and most of the petrol engines are hybrids. There’s a plug-in hybrid with a 33km electric range, and now, it’s gone fully electric.

In a review of the car earlier this year What Car? described it as “bang-on-trend” and set to “propel Volvo into the future”.

On its website, Volvo bills it as a car that:

…doesn’t force you to choose between power and responsible driving. Just take your seat, select a gear and enjoy the comfort of one pedal drive and the impressive strength of twin electric motors and all-wheel drive with zero tailpipe emissions.

When it comes to power, the specs are everything.

The XC40 Recharge gives you 304kW of power and 660Nm of torque to deliver 0-100km/h in just 4,9 seconds.

Not bad for an SUV.

It’s capable of travelling more than 400km on a single charge. Volvo has set up a handy calculator so that you can work out how far a charge will get you.

The car gets props for practicality with the lack of an internal combustion engine making room for an additional 30-litre storage compartment under the front bonnet. The batteries live in the undercarriage of the car which means that space is freed up elsewhere as well.

All of that is great, but we live in a country that isn’t flush with charging stations, which was my first thought when I heard that the Volvo XC40 Recharge was heading our way.

It turns out that the automaker has taken that into consideration.

Per BusinessTech, they plan on rolling out an extensive network of charging stations at Volvo dealerships nationwide by the end of the year. You can also charge it at home, Eskom-permitting.

The move to all-electric vehicles is part of Volvo’s commitment to reduce its CO2 footprint per car by 40% by 2025.

Here’s Greg Maruszewski, managing director at Volvo Car South Africa.

“Volvo Cars will launch a fully electric car every year, as we look to make all-electric cars 50% of global sales by 2025, with the rest hybrids.

“That same year, it expects 50% of its global sales to consist of fully electric cars, with the rest hybrids. But 2030, the company aims to only build electric cars,” he said.

I guess the only way to know for sure how we feel about it is to see it in action:

Joy Division’s ‘Blue Monday’? Interesting choice.

This is clearly, at least for the time being, very much a city car. You aren’t going to find these in the more rural parts of the country.

Nobody wants to find themselves in the middle of the Karoo without a charging station.

[source:whatcar&volvo&businesstech]