Volvo EC40 long-term test: report 7

The car Volvo EC40 Plus, single motor extended range Run by Mark Pearson, used cars editor

Why it’s here To see if this suave and upmarket coupé SUV can cut it against several similar electric car rivals in this highly competitive class 

Needs to It’ll need to dispatch commuting, work and family life without any range anxiety issues and cope with a wide variety of everyday duties

Miles covered 3299 Price £54,305 Target price £52,167 Price as tested £55,055 Official range 345 miles Test range 268 miles 

11 March 2025 – A mistake under braking 

I’m still enjoying the upmarket ambience of my Volvo EC40’s interior, and I’m not the only one; a couple of passengers I carried recently commented, separately and unprompted, on how luxurious it all felt.

The EC40 benefits from being closely related to Volvo’s petrol-powered XC40 – a model that has one of the plushest interiors in the family SUV class. The Volvo XC40 costs a lot less than the EC40 in like-for-like spec, though, so the fact that my car still feels like it’s worth the £55k asking price is an impressive feat, and proof of Volvo’s expertise at making its interiors feel desirable right across the range. Plus, I appreciate that it doesn’t just rely on traditional materials such as wood and leather to achieve this.

An area often overlooked in interior detailing is that of air quality, and my EC40 is impressive in this area, too. Volvo claims to have gone to great lengths to reduce airborne allergens and fine particulates among other irritants, so that the air you breathe inside is much more pleasant than what’s coming in from the outside. You can even see what the current pollen level is at any time. And while I’m not sure how clean the air really is, I do find I suffer fewer headaches after long journeys in the EC40 than in some other cars I’ve run.

In other news, until recently I thought that my EC40 didn’t have an auto-hold facility, but I have subsequently had it pointed out to me that it does. You have to press down quite heavily on the brake pedal when you come to a halt, but you can then lift your foot off and the car will remain stationary until you press the accelerator pedal to move off. My mistake, of course.

I’d assumed it didn’t have one because you’d more usually find the auto-hold as a separate button on the centre console, or perhaps as an icon in a sub-menu on the infotainment screen. My initial detective work had failed to find either of those, so I made a hasty assumption. I’m not sure if Sherlock Holmes would have been impressed by that.

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