Volvo EC40 review

Volvo says the C40 is ‘all about design’. Naturally that’s brought flaws: scant headroom for anyone six-feet-plus intent on sitting in the back, a not-huge boot with a high floor, an obstructive A-pillar and tiny rear visibility, that most familiar of coupefied crossover gripes.

But this is a Volvo, and the criticisms of its accommodation are minor rather than major. In truth the interior ambience is as zen as it ever was in a Swedish SUV. It contains no leather at all, with its various fabrics and carpets sourced from recycled matter. We’re promised 71 former PET drinks bottles go into each cabin. Try drinking out of anything other than a keep cup with that stat boinging around your brain.

And at least you get a decent-sized frunk, ideal for cable storage. Far too many electric cars force you to make do with a compartment under the boot floor, forgetting that this tends to get blocked with, you know, stuff. That’s 404 litres of stuff, to be exact, with room for 1,196 litres if you pop the seats down.

And it's minimalist, right?

It truly is, yes. There’s no button to start or stop the engine, you just encourage the stubby little gear selector into D or P. There’s not even a handbrake or auto hold button – which does encourage you to sit on the brakes in traffic, dazzling drivers behind with red lights. Oops.

Any other gripes? All major functions operate through the mid-mounted, portrait touchscreen, though it’s much simpler than when Volvo debuted this layout a few years ago. Signing into Google with your car may awaken the ethical quarters of your brain, but it does make things easy to operate.

Nav instructions are neatly displayed in the digital instrument display, so idle passengers can faff around with the middle screen all they like – poring judgmentally through your Spotify – without disrupting progress.

What else should I know?

Being a Volvo, the seats are terrific, and the backlit dashboard and door trim – mimicking the topography map of one of the designer’s favourite Swedish hiking spots – is a cute and visually satisfying touch.

Which is handy, because some of the materials and functions – not least the snappy manual lever for adjusting the steering wheel position – speaks of a £25k crossover punching up, not a £55k car completely comfortable in its skin. The XC40 on which this is based has been one of the UK’s best-selling cars over the last few years, but that does mean some of the C40’s core bits can’t help but feel mainstream. With less power and a lower price, it all makes significantly more sense.