Author: French fry fish

Have you ever seen the northern lights?

Have you ever seen the aurora in Abisko National Park, Sweden?

Have you ever seen the aurora in Abisko National Park, Sweden in a car?

Recently, I experienced all of the above options in a new Volvo car.

The C that didn’t make it

Whether it’s for brand breakthrough or product testing, many car brands have models that differ from their mainstream styles. This law applies to Volvo’s C series.

Once upon a time, the C series was responsible for Volvo’s two-door coupes.

I still remember vividly the orange Volvo C30 that slowly passed me by on a summer twelve years ago. From the bland Volvo front to the side that made me go “huh, is that a two-door Volvo?,” to the cleanly sliced hatchback at the back that broke my knowledge of Volvo, the combination was enough to make me turn my head for a long time.

Another reason it left a lasting impression on me was that the girl beside me said, “Wow, that car is really good-looking.”

Unfortunately, like many people’s first love, the C30 was discontinued before I could afford it due to its overly niche status.

Fortunately, what is remembered will come around again. The C series of the past is now back in the form of the pure electric, four-door, hatchback, coupe SUV, the Volvo C40 RECHARGE.

Will it still be the same C from all those years ago, now that it’s gone from two doors to four and from a coupe to an SUV? Although photos of the new car have been released, my obsession wanted me to go to the scene to make a judgment.

The hatchback C

Upon first seeing the real-life Volvo C40 RECHARGE, it was familiarly plain.

The familiar closed grille with a stitched line, the familiar Thor’s Hammer headlights, the familiar layout of the lower air intake…it’s hard not to think of Volvo’s other pure electric SUV, the XC40 RECHARGE.

These two cars cannot be said to be identical, but they are certainly closely related. I have also seen many people online saying that the C40 RECHARGE is simply the XC40 RECHARGE with a different skin.

For me, the essence of the Volvo C series is not in the platform architecture or powertrain. Of course, these elements are important for a car, but what I am more interested in is whether the C40 RECHARGE can reproduce the same feeling I had back then.

And that feeling begins to brew when you see the side view of the new car.

If the charm of the C30’s side profile came from its two doors, then the charm of the C40 RECHARGE comes from its roof curve.

Just past the B-pillar, the roof curve begins to slope downwards, which continues until the rear of the car. Make no mistake, this is a sleek SUV. While the sleek profile sacrifices some headroom in the back seat, it also adds dynamic character to the whole car.

Volvo says that this design pays tribute to the Volvo P1800, which won three consecutive World Tourism Championships, but the 20-inch wheels add a sporty touch. In particular, the wider tyres with a front width of 235mm and a rear width of 255mm anchor the car’s sporty position.

Finally, as tradition dictates for the Volvo C series, the rear of the car is where the car’s aesthetic peak is found. And for the C40 RECHARGE, the peak is at the intersection of the rear and roof.New car is equipped with a split air deflector on both sides of the upper edge of the rear windshield. This is not only for good looks, but also to streamline the airflow passing through the roof and direct it to the fixed wind spoiler at the bottom of the rear windshield, thereby achieving better aerodynamics.

Compared with the previous models, the taillight has undergone significant changes, but the charm of Volvo’s “Väderspara” can still be captured at a glance. The new design lines are obviously more bold than before, and I am curious whether this design style is only to cater to the positioning of the C40 RECHARGE or it will become the new taillight design language of the Volvo pure electric era in the future.

The Hidden “C” Under the Sun

If it stops here, I would be a little disappointed with Volvo’s “most beautiful Volvo”.

After all, apart from the appearance, when I opened the car door, everything I saw and felt, including the car infotainment system, instrument panel, steering wheel, seats, and the Pilot Assist navigation assistance system, all gave me a sense of familiarity, besides the carpet and door panel decoration that echoes the car paint.

However, the lady from Volvo told me to be a little more patient, as the C40 RECHARGE in the daytime is not yet in its complete form.

When night falls and the headlights come on, I finally realized that the seemingly familiar “Thor’s Hammer” is actually Volvo’s brand-new intelligent pixel LED headlight. Each side contains 84 adaptive LED beads that can automatically adjust the low beam, high beam, direction, and height, and identify up to 5 vehicles ahead to cut off the light.

The new Väderspara taillight is not only for updating the design, but the sequential lighting with unique lines will surely allow you to spot its location in the dark parking lot at a glance.

During the day, I said that the interior of this car is full of familiarity, but when the ambient light fades away, the decorative panels on the car door and dashboard begin to show the intertwining of light and shadow.

Different from ambient light strips, such 3D shadow light panels have transition of light and shadow and lines, which in my opinion can obviously score more points.

Volvo said that this design was inspired by the aurora in Abisko National Park, Sweden, which is also the origin of the aurora I mentioned at the beginning.

Just like the “wider front and wider rear” tires mentioned earlier, Volvo seems to be very good at this “half-covered PiPa” style of detailed design, and these designs that need to be explored are obviously more likely to resonate with people’s appreciation for design.

For example, there is a retractable small box at the front end of the center armrest, with a self-resetting mechanism on it. This is actually a practical small wastepaper basket.

Another example is the tail badge representing the power level of Volvo vehicles, which has changed again on the new car.

For quite a long time, Volvo used the letters T, B, and P combined with numbers to represent the power of vehicles, which actually had a high learning cost for ordinary consumers. But on this car, Volvo changed the tail badge to “twin”. Although it is the same dual motor and the same 300kw power, at least more people can recognize that it should be a dual motor model at a glance.

As for driving quality, you can always trust the professionalism that Volvo possesses as a luxury brand.

This is also true for power. The 4.7-second acceleration from zero to 100 km/h is enough for me to run wild in my daily life. Two permanent magnet synchronous motors from Valeo Siemens can output a power of 300kw, even making a media predecessor who is not used to driving electric cars say that “the power is too much, exceeding his needs”.

At that time, my internal OS was, which young person would resist more power?

And in the next second, I thought of the target customer group of C40 RECHARGE, and immediately realized that this is clearly not a car positioned as mature and stable.

Sports, vitality, youth.

Thanks to this predecessor for confirming that the Volvo C in my heart should be back.

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This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.