New motors, more range, and a rear-drive version make Volvo’s electric luxury SUVs more compelling.
—but the new 2024 twin-motor Volvos sure as heck do. Power response is instantaneous, and it doesn't feel like it trails off significantly as speeds climb. Volvo's digital speedometer adds to the fun: It doesn't skip numbers but rapidly flips through them all like a prop in a sci-fi movie. We'll admit to enjoying the skyrocketing figures almost as much as the acceleration itself.
One thing we didn't enjoy was the One Pedal driving mode, because we noticed a slight delay between lifting off the accelerator and the onset of regenerative braking, which made it difficult to modulate deceleration. Oddly, the C40 hesitates before braking but not before accelerating, so to drive smoothly we had to lift off the pedal early and step on it late. Sound weird? Wait till you drive it.
As to how the rear power bias affects the driving experience, it was too subtle to discern on the roads we drove the all-electric SUVs on. If you gun the go pedal coming out of curves, the Volvo actuates both motors and launches itself like the proverbial cannonball. Also, the back roads around Gothenburg arenarrow, so we weren't taking heroic action to provoke any tail-out responses.
We did try a bit harder to prompt the Single Motor car into a little back-end misbehavior, but the only indication of which wheels were getting the juice was a flashing stability control light as we whizzed out of the corners. Volvo pointed out that the latest advances in electronic stability control mean a rear-drive EV can handle winter driving conditions better than a front-wheel-drive combustion engine vehicle.
Will Volvo elbow its way into first position with these improved Recharge models? We're still waiting on pricing, and that will factor into our opinion. A Twin Motor C40 now has more range than, but the latter still accelerates harder and charges significantly quicker. These new luxury SUV models are more about filling out Volvo's electric lineup than setting any new standards, but they've certainly given us more reasons to like this rather unique pair of electric SUVs.
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