Volvo EX40 review

Most Volvos deliver a comfortable and relaxed driving experience, and the EX40 is no exception to this, with its SUV suspension successfully soaking up the majority of uneven urban road surfaces. The Volvo EX40 is also a very quiet, refined and capable motorway cruiser.

Comfortable is also the best way to describe the handling - rather than sporty or agile. The performance of the Single Motor model, with 238 hp and a 0-62 mph acceleration time of 7.3 seconds, is perfectly adequate, but the Twin Motor model offers considerably more power (408 hp), which certainly adds to the fun factor.

Unusually, there’s no choice of drive modes in the EX40, apart from ‘standard’ or ‘off-road’; these options are accessed by pressing the small cog button at the bottom right-hand corner of the touchscreen. And it’s a similar process to change the level of brake regeneration - you can’t do this via the gear selector, and there are no steering wheel-mounted paddles, so you have to go searching for buttons in touchscreen menus (via the cog button again) for ‘one pedal drive’; the options are auto, on and off. One pedal drive ‘on’ and one pedal drive ‘off’ both do what they say on the tin; if you select ‘auto’ the car decides on the level of regenerative braking itself, resulting in it braking strongly sometimes, but not at other times, so you’re left with an issue of inconsistent braking pressure.

The central touchscreen features four boxes for functions such as maps, radio, phone and car status, however you can change these by swiping the boxes to the side and selecting other ‘app’ options. Underneath the screen there’s a physical ‘home’ button, which takes you back to the four boxes, but if the screen has, for example, the window open for radio, there are no shortcut buttons to take you directly back to eg. maps; instead you have to press the home button then press the maps button.

Climate controls are located at the bottom of the touchscreen; if you want to adjust details such as where the ventilation is coming from, you need to do this on a separate climate screen, and, again, if you want to go back to eg. maps, you need to press the home button first.

The EX40 has a high driving position, which is quite common with SUVs, and there’s no start/stop button, you just get in that car, select a gear, and you’re off.

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The Volvo EX40 Plus Single Motor costs £52,555. The EX40 is available with three trim levels: Core, Plus and Ultimate, and in Single Motor from, delivering 238 hp of power, or with Twin Motors giving 408 hp. There’s also the EC40, a ‘fastback crossover’ version of the EX40 SUV, which has the same choices in terms of trim levels and single or twin motors.

There’s very little to fault the Volvo EX40. It’s comfortable, refined and spacious. The main change for 2024 is the move to rear-wheel drive, which Volvo claims helps to increase the driving range, as well as eliminating wheelspin and torque steer, and it makes the car more rewarding to drive, even though the driving experience may not be particularly exciting in 238 hp Single Motor form. However the EX40 in 408 hp Twin Motor guise, which delivers the added traction of all-wheel drive, offers impressive performance, and a reasonable amount of fun.