Electric Vehicles

Volvo brings back RWD after 25 years

Written by Kanad Kalasur

It has been almost 25 years since Volvo had a rear wheel drive on sale. Now, the Swedish carmaker is offering a rear wheel drive variant on the XC40 and C40 Recharge models. Sadly, there is no internal-combustion engine this time, but at least the all-electric vehicles come with rear wheel drive layouts. 

RWD Variants of the C40 and XC40 Recharge

There are not one, but two RWD variants offered with both the models. These include a base 235 HP variant with a 69 kWh battery and a higher-end 248 HP version with a 82 kWh battery pack. 

In terms of performance, both these will do 0-100 km/h in 7.4 seconds while the top speed has been restricted to 160 km/h. 

In terms of driving range, the 69 kWh battery is good for  460-470 km (WLTP cycle) while the larger battery versions can go for 520-530 km. The higher range is for the C40, which is sleeker than the XC40 SUV.  

Coming to charging of the batteries, Volvo claims that the 69 kWh battery can be topped up from 10-80 percent in 34 mins using a 130 kW DC charger. The 82 kWh versions can now be charged using a 200 kW charger, up from 150 kW previously. The 10 to 80 percent top up will take only 28 minutes using such a charger.  

Changes in the 2023 versions of the C40 and XC40 Recharge

New for the model year is the improved battery cooling. Thanks to this, the Volvo engineers have managed to elk out an additional 60 km from across the range. The 60 km increase in range is from the XC40 AWD variant. 

The cars also come with new 19-inch alloys which are more aero than before. Further, Volvo is also installing a new two-phase charger on the 60 and 90 Series that can double the charging power to 6.4 kW. This will be offered on the plug-in models of the stable.

Also Read – More power & range for Volvo XC40 & C40 recharge.