After plenty of prototypes spied in the wild, as well as a handful of leaked images, the 2018 Volvo XC40 finally goes official. The Swedish automaker’s smallest crossover utility vehicle yet is a Volvo from the ground up, and it’s a commercial hit in the making. But first of all, let us talk about Care by Volvo.
The XC40 is the first Volvo that can be owned through the subscription service, which works pretty much like buying a smartphone through a carrier’s plan. No down payment, no insurance, tax, service fee, nada, Care by Volvo breaks down to a ready-negotiated monthly fee, combined with getting a new car every 24 months. In the first instance, the service will be available in Sweden, Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and U.S.
And now, let’s talk about the car. Launched today in Milan, Italy of all places, the XC40 challenges the status quo of other premium-oriented crossover vehicles in the compact segment. The first Volvo riding on the CMA platform, the newcomer features plenty of exterior design motifs borrowed from the XC60 and XC90. Even the interior resembles the SPA-based bigger brothers.
Described as “one of the best-equipped small premium SUVs on the market,” the XC40 makes a case for itself with a lot of safety and driver assist features offered as standard. Park Pilot, City Safety, Run-off Road protection and mitigation, Cross Traffic Alert with brake support, 360-degree camera system, that’s a lot of fancy know-how crammed into the tiniest high-riding Volvo yet.
In the first instance, the engines list will consists of one turbo diesel and one turbo gasoline: D4 and T5 Drive-E. Less powerful mills are in the pipeline, as is the T5 Twin Engine plug-in hybrid, which will come exclusively in front-wheel-drive. In 2019 at the very latest, the XC40 will get "a pure electric version.”'
The XC40 enters production in November at the Ghent plant in Belgium.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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