Four years after arriving on the market and today becoming one of the cars that have improved its sales the most, the Volvo XC40 is now preparing its update to continue its successful commercial path.
Popular and prestigious for its safety and family trucks, Volvo has built on the success of SUVs in recent years. Practically the three models that compete in this category (XC40, XC60, and XC90) account for all of the Swedish brand’s sales, leaving the registrations of its sedans and compacts as a testimonial. But among them, without a doubt, the XC40 takes the cake.
And is that in this 2022, according to ANFAC data, the XC40 accounts for more than 60 percent of Volvo’s total sales in Spain, even multiplying by 5 the registrations of the company’s second best-selling vehicle, which is the XC60. But there is more: as we told you yesterday in this article, the XC40 has become, after the Tesla Model 3, one of the cars that have increased their sales the most in the last 2 years of the pandemic: in total, 42 .5 percent, in a context of a general drop in registrations.
Already Surpasses Bmw X1 and Mercedes Gla
Thus endorsed by its success, Volvo is already preparing the first update of the SUV, which first hit the market 4 years ago. This means that the revision will be released in the coming months, as the model year 2023, in its goal of continuing to compete strongly against its great rivals Audi Q3, BMW X1, and Mercedes GLA. To these last two, by the way, it sweeps them already in 2022 in the market in Spain, and only Q3 surpasses it.
The premiere of the new Volvo XC40, which we can now show you thanks, as always, to our illustrator Schulte, will stand out above all for its new front end. Taking this way and the front part of his brother’s C40, the SUV will show an important facelift. The headlights will therefore be flatter and, in its top line of equipment, new pixel LEDs with adaptive functions will illuminate the road optimally.
Additionally, the front apron will also be restyled, while the fog light inlays now cite the daytime running lights signature, in what is known as the “Hammer of Thor” style. For its part, the electric variants of the model will also have a specific front, with the grille closed.
Volvo XC40: Changes on the Outside, but Few Inside
Volvo also confirms that the infotainment system, which uses Android Automotive as its operating system, will be extended with the YouTube app soon. Thus, when you are stopped with the car, you will be able to watch videos on the screen in the cabin itself, a function that, for example, was born to entertain waiting times when charging electric cars.
The base engine of the new Volvo XC40 will be the 1.5 3-cylinder gasoline with 130 hp and 6-speed manual gearbox. Above it, and for an additional €2,000, this same version emerges but with an 8-speed automatic gearbox with a torque converter. Another gasoline engine, already with 4 cylinders and 2.0 liters of displacement, will close this offer with powers between 163 and 250 CV.
But the Volvo XC40 Recharge PHEV will continue to be the main focus of the range, a plug-in hybrid system with versions of 211 and 261 HP of power. The purely electric Volvo XC40 Recharge will also continue to exist, which are now marketed in 231 and 408 hp versions. All models are manufactured in Ghent, Belgium.
