Volvo XC40 To Spearhead Company's Electric Revolution

Volvo has confirmed to the media that their first all-electric vehicle will be a variant of their baby-SUV, the XC40. Volvo is taking the step to electrify their current lineup of cars rather than develop all-new electric cars like some other manufacturers (cough… Volkswagen, BMW i… cough) are doing, the company’s SPA and CMA platforms have been designed to support electrification/hybridisation.

The move to equip their smallest car with an electrified powertrain first is expected to help the company achieve their goal of 50 per cent electric car sales in 2025. Also helping this cause will be the fact that every facelift or new generation of their existing lineup will be launched with an all-electric variant. The Volvo XC90, which marked the beginning of this new energised Volvo brand, is set to receive an update in 2021 and will be the next Volvo to receive an all-electric variant. The XC90 is offered with the T8 Excellence plug-in hybrid variant currently which is also available in India at Rs 1.31 crore, ex-showroom.

The Volvo XC40 will have lithium-ion batteries powering it, but that’s all that Volvo has revealed for now. It will join the current lineup of petrol (T3, T4, T5), diesel (D3, D4) and plug-in hybrid (T5 Twin Engine) versions. The new Volvo XC40 will be launched in India in the D4 AWD R-Design variant on 4 July 2018, and sources in the company have assured that the electrified variants of any Volvo launched worldwide will be launched in India too. Meanwhile, check out our first impressions of the XC40 compact-SUV here.