Volvo XC40 T5 Recharge – long-term review

After eight months serving on Fleet TG, it’s time for the XC40 to meet its maker (by which I mean it’s returning to Volvo, not the other thing), and time for a verdict. Which raises a question. Am I reviewing the car, or the wider experience of owning the car?

Because if it’s the former: brilliant, great, no complaints here. The XC40 is a quality bit of kit, feeling every inch the premium rival to Germany’s finest.

Save for the odd microsecond of hesitation from the regenerative brakes when parking, I’ve no complaints about the way it goes. The two power sources are neatly integrated. The infotainment stuff is slicker than a Brylcreemed otter. The seats are super-comfy.

So, yes, the XC40 is a very good plug-in hybrid. But I’m still struggling with plug-in hybrids as a species. Specifically the 'actually plugging in' bit. Maybe that’s because a PHEV is the wrong shoe for my strangely shaped foot. I don’t have off-street parking, so I’m limited to public charge-points. Maybe if I could top up conveniently on my driveway each evening, I’d feel different.

But that said, surely I’m just the sort of potential customer that a plug-in hybrid should be convincing? I live in a town, I do a bunch of short journeys punctuated by the odd longer one. For financial and environmental reasons, I’d love as much of that driving as possible to be electric.

But, in most of Britain right now, the inconvenience of finding a working, vacant public charge-point outweighs the benefit of the cheap’n’green motoring it elicits, at least in a vehicle with such limited battery range. Though Volvo claims an electric range of around 28 miles on a charge, I’ve rarely coaxed more than 20 from the XC40, and often a whole lot less if it’s cold. Or hilly.

Is it really worth the hour of faff (find charge-point, figure out how to operate charge point, discover charge-point isn’t working, find new charge-point, plug in, wait for car to charge, unplug) to gain just a couple of dozen miles of slightly cheaper, slightly greener motoring? Not for me, Gary. Of course, if every car park was stuffed to the gills with vacant charge-points, that would change the equation. But they aren’t, so it doesn’t.

As it is, I constantly found myself wondering if I’d be better off with a big-battery, full electric car, and blocking out a few hours once a week or so to find a charge-point and thoroughly brim it. At least it’d represent a decent return on the inconvenience.

Plug-in hybrids have always faced a squeezed existence: between pure EVs on one side, and frugal petrols on the other. As electric cars become ever more rangey – and full petrols become ever more economical – it feels tough, for me at least, to justify a PHEV on anything but tax-saving grounds. In other words, however good a plug-in hybrid the XC40 might be, it’s still a plug-in hybrid. That new XC40 T8 Recharge, on the other hand…