It’s only just landed, but the C40 and XC40 sister ship are now in line for significant revisions, set to hit NZ next year.

FRONT-wheel-drive this year, rear-drive from 2024 – that seems a potential local market change coming for a small electric Volvo that’s recently gone on sale in New Zealand.

That transition is suggested in an announcement from the Sino-Swedish brand last night concerning the all-electric Recharge editions of the C40 coupe and XC40 crossover sister ship. 

It’s still not absolutely clear what the Geely-owned marque is planning.

 The cars presently sell here in $84,000-86,000 P6 170kW/330Nm single motor, with power through the front wheels, and $98-102k dual motor 300kW/660Nm all-wheel-drive, the coupes carrying the premium.

Volvo’s announcement, now, is of a new motor, developed in house, that lends additional performance and range for all models.

Single motor versions that place the electric motor into a rear-drive-configuration, provision with two levels of power output and range – the biggest lift for a new, extended range product - plus faster charging. The revised all-wheel-drive performance model also has better range and oomph.

Does this absolutely mean the front-drive choice will become redundant?

Volvocars NZ general manager Ben Montgomery was unable to directly address those questions. But he has confirmed the rear-drive product is coming, likely in a year from now.

“We expect to see these at model year ’24, but we have no further details at this time.”

The main gist of the announcement is that the single-motor cars have dropped the current 170kW motor for a freshly-developed permanent magnet type, designed in-house, and making 175kW.

The same 69kWh battery capacity is carried over but enhancements in cooling efficiency mean the XC40 can now deliver increased range and driving up to 461km, according to the WLTP test cycle, compared with 425km (WLTP) with front-drive. The range of the C40 Recharge single motor, meanwhile, improves up to 476km from 438km (WLTP).

A 10-80 percent charge takes approximately 34 minutes using a 130kW DC public charger, according to a report on the Just Auto website.

A larger battery coupled with a more powerful 185kW permanent magnet e-motor RWD is also offered. This second new variant comes with an 82kWh battery pack, which boosts range up to 515km for the XC40 Recharge single motor extended range and up to 533km (WLTP) for the C40 Recharge single motor extended range. 

Charging power has improved because the larger battery pack allows for charging at an updated top rate of 200kW DC (previously 150kW DC), while a 10-80 percent charge takes approximately 28 minutes.

The all wheel drive variants also benefit from these updates. The previous set-up of two 150kW e-motors on the front and rear axles has been replaced by the in-house developed 183kW permanent magnet e-motor on the rear axle and a new 117kW asynchronous electric motor on the front axle.

This new configuration, paired with an 82kWh battery pack and overall efficiency improvements in battery cooling, means the XC40 Recharge Twin Motor AWD can now drive up to 500km on a single charge, Just Auto reports, a 62km increase over the current NZ offer.  The range of the C40 Recharge Twin Motor AWD has improved up to 507km from 451km (WLTP).

Exterior updates improve efficiency. A new 19 inch alloy wheel helps to reduce drag through its aerodynamic design.

There’s also revision for Volvo’s plug-in 60 and 90 series hybrid models. These get a new two-phase on-board charger that allows these models to charge at a faster rate. The new charger almost doubles the maximum charge capability of these cars to 6.4kW.