Volvo EC40 long-term test
The Volvo EC40 is a stylish and all-electric take on one of our favourite cars: the Volvo XC40. But what’s it like to live with? Our used cars editor is finding out...
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 2410 Price £54,305 Target price £52,167 Price as tested £55,055 Official range 345 miles Test range 260 miles
30 January 2025 – Make sure you're connected
Maybe because I find the icons on my Volvo EC40’s standard infotainment screen a little small, I prefer to use the Apple CarPlay set up. Perhaps surprisingly, this has to be connected up via a wire rather than wirelessly, which is a bit of a faff in that it means the phone’s cable gets in the way a bit. It also prevents a larger phone from sitting properly on the wireless charging slot that’s there for it.
However, having set up CarPlay when I first got the car it has only ever worked intermittently – I usually get a message telling me to connect my iPhone and to make sure the USB cable is connected properly. I even bought a new Apple-certified cable in case that was the issue, but the results were the same. It could well be that the fault lies with my old iPhone 8 Plus’s charging port, although I’ve had no problems with it elsewhere.
Taking advice from wiser councils, I cleaned my phone’s charging port with my wife’s toothbrush and rebooted the infotainment system. It worked, but again not for long. Subsequent reboots have had the same outcome – sometimes when I get in the car it connects to CarPlay for a bit, and other times it doesn’t.
Either way, I’ve done what I always do in such situations and given up. Luckily, the EC40 has Google Assistant, which is proving to be rather good. It can be used wirelessly and once set up properly utilises voice control to read and send text messages in much the same way as CarPlay, plus you get real-time traffic updates via Google Maps. In many ways, then, it's the superior system – and means I don't have to prod aimlessly at the EC40's icons in transit.
In other news, the EC40 is still serving splendidly as family transport. So far, no one has complained about my car’s s coupé styling robbing it of rear space. However, I am around six feet tall and, with the driver’s seat set up for me, although I can sit behind me I must admit I wouldn’t want to do that for long. That's because my hair brushes the headlining, and I have enough problems with my neck without spending a journey of any length with my head cricked.
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