With Volvo’s full-steam march towards electrification, we were faced with quite a bit of good news and bad news during our test of this XC40 Recharge…
Seeing that I believe in always eating the lemon before the chocolate, I’ll start with the bad news. At the time of composing this text (early 2025) there are currently no official Volvo dealers in Namibia. Insert sad emoji here, please. However, it pleases me immensely to report that the Swedish brand is still willing to bring us press vehicles for testing.
That bit of good news may be the thanks to our international video channel (Galimoto Media on Youtube) but I’d like to think that Volvo South(ern) Africa built enough of a relationship with NamWheels to lend us another one of their fully-electric cars… even though the Land of the Brave doesn’t have much of an EV infrastructure right now.
The lack of charging points – in a country bursting with sunlight – is another indication of the slow EV uptake which is currently tripping up most Northern Hemisphere politicians’ dreams of fully electrifying our mobility. Don’t get me started on their misplaced determination, ridiculous timelines or, harrumph, ulterior motives.
No. To put it simply, on the day that we Namibians can transport goods and people more efficiently than fuel-burning vehicles, I’ll moth-ball my V8’s for sunny Sundays and happily sign on the dotted line for a new electric vehicle. Almost certainly beside a Volvo logo, just for the record.
I’ve had the privilege of reviewing electric vehicles from rival brands such as BMW, Jaguar, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, GWM/Ora and Volkswagen, but as someone already pointed out a while ago: when cars have identical means of propulsion (i.e. an electric motor or four) it doesn’t matter anymore which one you drive.
And thus, I pick the Volvo.
Why? Because we at NamWheels collectively loved the turbo-petrol or turbo-diesel XC40’s so much that we not only heaped them with praise in our many reviews, but pushed one forward to ultimately become our Car of the Year 2018. Of all the hundreds of compact crossovers on our roads, this one is my favourite. Hand on heart.
We’ve also had a go in their conceived-to-be-electric-from-the-start C40, which I initially thought would take over from the XC40 upon its retirement, yet it’s still here to show how amazing it can be when all that’s propelling it is electricity. How much of it? Umm, in its highest P8 trim, 82kWh worth of battery driving two motors worth 300kW.
Other than the near-silent propulsion that an EV brings with it, you can also enjoy a sharp increase in acceleration. We’ve published a compilation of all Volvo XC40 internal-combustion model performance on YouTube but all of them can pack up their stuff and go home when it comes to traffic light grands prix…
Another dose of good news that comes with a plug-in Volvo is that it offers one-pedal driving. Other manufacturers now also offer this, but we always find that the Swedes have got the right amount of feeling (or feedback) in this system, which can usually be turned on or off, too.
It’s quite novel, to drive without using the brake pedal due to the heavy deceleration of these vehicles.
The not-so-good side of that is, of course, that you’ll currently struggle to keep sufficient juice in the battery for extended city commutes or – heaven forbid – getting to the coast for a quick getaway. The range on a full battery isn’t bad, Volvo alleges up to 500km, but charging it up will present significant challenges involving time and money.
Unlike a fuel station, which just exists on every other city corner, you have to carefully plan your movement to include the puny amount of Namibians EV charging stations. Better still, I would invest heavily in a solar array for my home and/or place of work, so that the car can be charged for free (kinda) while not in use.
I’m afraid there’s even more bad news at this point because these new types of electric vehicles prefer a newer, more power-hungry source of electricity to feed their bigger batteries. Think of it as leaded versus unleaded petrol, and unfortunately we in Namibia only sell paraffin at, like, three dodgy shops in the whole country.
That means you have to either build your own refinery (i.e. high-power charger) or be very patient while your car charges up again from a regular domestic 220V A/C socket. I’m sure we’ll eventually get Tesla-level chargers around Nam, but that’s as helpful as telling a Porsche 911 Turbo owner that tar roads will hopefully be built in the next decade or two.
As a last hurrah of good news, the gracefully ageing Volvo XC40 is also available as a plug-in hybrid, which, if we had some sort of dealer in the country, would be my wholehearted recommendation to anyone who isn’t ready to make the brave leap to EV’s yet but still wants to drive a beautiful, sophisticated and efficient Volvo.
And so, with many apologies to Volvo and its fans around Namibia, we have to disregard the amazing new XC40 P8 Recharge until our country is ready for it. And when it finally is, make mine a P8 Ultimate in Cloud Blue with diamond-cut 19’s and that retro fabric interior, as I have so often spec’d it on the online configurator…