RE: Volvo reveals 408hp C40 Recharge

[amgmcqueen]

Boring white goods vehicles, bought by boring people.

Wouldn't give a toss if it went the same way as Saab.

[anonymous-user]

This car is Ugly just plain ugly.

As for dealerships going out of business frankly thats not a bad thing, I would prefer a service centre run by the OEM not buy an A hole who couldn't give a F about customers which a lot of them are. Not all but a lot.

[woops]

ch37 said:

tonyg58 said:

Aside from the previous questions about test drives and repairs etc, am i the only one that thinks building enormous (probably two ton) vehicles (even powered by electricity) that will generally only ever have one person in them is not better for the environment?
Try building smaller cars that use less resources people.
Something like the tiny car with replaceable panels that Gordon Murray designed (T25) perhaps?

Yep, the direction 'we've' taken is completely illogical. Bigger, heavier cars = more raw materials, more damage to the roads on so on. But marketing says electric = green, even if it is 2.5t.

The reduction of on-street pollution will be a big positive from this rapid move to EV, but 'we' seem happy to move the actual problems with it elsewhere, or ignore it entirely.

You'd find massive touch screen dashboards on the same page, again completely illogical considering the years spent coming down hard on phone use in cars. The regulators seem to be happy to brush this one under the carpet.

Edited by ch37 on Tuesday 2nd March 17:28

The above is part of the reason electric won't be the only future powertrain type. The use case for electric is actually quite limited, not just because of weight/cost/dubious eco-benefits, but also because there's no real infrastructure solution for where most people live (at least not until we can order a self-driver, on demand from Uber). An EV only future is a dead end. And I'd guess that cars like this Volvo will probably end up being scrapped before some ICE vehicles

[CedricN]

It will be interesting to see how they handle the dealers in other countries. Here in the homeland they threw their long standing partner (wasowned by volvo back in the day i think) with a massive resale network under the buss and just chose to not renew the contract (they had sold Volvos since the 60s i think). So they are surely serious about the restructuring.

[ducnick]

ZX10R NIN said:

To all these people wishing the dealers away just wait until you have to deal with the Manufacturer directly, it'll have you wishing for the dealership back, remember when the dealership isn't dealing with your warranty claim as quickly as you like it's usually because the Manufacturer is the one slowing down procedures.

Also when your new Volvo turns up with more orange peal than a jar of marmalade, enjoy sorting that out virtually

Easy. Stop paying the monthly membership fee if you don’t like it and they come and take the car away.
We won’t be buying/financing these cars after all. Volvo and JLR’s latest membership schemes shows us the way the market is going. After 4 yrs on the membership scheme they will be sold to fleet used membership schemes that will rent you a used car instead of a new one. No need to ever own one and pay the servicing /mot / tax /insurance etc again

[Maccmike8]

Well doesnt that look sht1.

[mcelliott]

The future of motoring fills me with dread, what a depressing PoS that is.

[paul13]

cc3 said:

Sadly not a looker. One of their poorer designs I feel

Agreed, in my opinion it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch (twice!), but each to their own.

[Speedraser]

Volvo is going all electric. Volvo is owned by a Chinese company. The vast majority of materials required to make electric drivetrains comes from China.

Not a coincidence.

[andyj007]

love this concept.. no dealers, Bull Sh&t sales rubbish, this is the price of the car, you either want it or you dont.. refreshing.. looks great too.. volvo do make some stunning looking cars these days..

[ducnick]

Speedraser said:

Volvo is going all electric. Volvo is owned by a Chinese company. The vast majority of materials required to make electric drivetrains comes from China.

Not a coincidence.

Absolutely not a coincidence. But the Chinese bought wisely with Volvo. Turning BMW or Alfa all Bev would be a tough ask as they both trade to some extent on their great ice or ultimate driving machine etc status. Selecting a manufacturer not known for sporty cars or great engines, then systematically removing any ice desirability from their entire range by adopting 2L 4 pot motors for everything and focusing on interior design was very clever. Doing the same to Jaguar won’t be as easy as they have the fine engine heritage. Saab, Lexus, Infinity are all brands ripe for electrification. Really wouldn’t be surprised to see someone buy the rights to the Saab name that traded on quality and dependability for an electric venture.

[998420]

Nothing "green" about this, just virtue signalling for idiots who got taken in by Greta's lies or listen to the opinions of their own brainwashed children.

Keep the car you already own, no batteries, no electric.motors with finite life cycles, very little pollution from.modern cars

If you are concerned about pollution, make the Chinese clean up, and make the global shipping industry clean up...cars are absurdly far down the list of polluters...while we screw our economies moving to electric cars, our enemies in China are laughing

[SDK]

998420 said:

Keep the car you already own, no batteries, no electric.motors with finite life cycles, very little pollution from.modern cars

Just a massive amount of CO2 from the drilling, piping, refining and transporting oil then burning the fuel in engines that are only 30% efficient. Makes a lot of sense

[TinyMonster]

998420 said:

Nothing "green" about this, just virtue signalling for idiots who got taken in by Greta's lies or listen to the opinions of their own brainwashed children.

Keep the car you already own, no batteries, no electric.motors with finite life cycles, very little pollution from.modern cars

If you are concerned about pollution, make the Chinese clean up, and make the global shipping industry clean up...cars are absurdly far down the list of polluters...while we screw our economies moving to electric cars, our enemies in China are laughing

Wow. There's a lot going on in this post.

[whp1983]

Car is dull

The dealership thing is interesting and I think a mistake.... aside from fact I don’t like people losing jobs, do customers really want online only for cars? Dealers just going to be service centres then or car experience centres and buy online?
I’m only 37 and maybe old fashioned but I wouldn’t buy a car I didn’t know without having play with it first.

I’ll be interested to see sales figures on this... and indeed how they structure all the three year old ones... second hand only online too?

[Glosphil]

Was having a discussion on electric cars with a few friends and all agreed that we wanted an EV with similar spec to our existing cars with a range of at least 250 miles. Didn't need to be faster - I suspect that insurance companies will take into account motor max power when setting premiums. Obviously the EVs will need some extra power to offset the extra weight.
Price not more than 20% above latest ICE version of current cars.
Pre-Covid we averaged 8-10k miles a year - we're all retired.
We all have double width driveways & garages so re-charging not a problem

So we need to replace:
Leon FR (150) hatckback
Audi A4 (140) Avant
VW EOS (140)
Golf (125)
Renault Clio (100)
Fabia (100)
Clio (75)
MX-5 (158)
Notice there are no SUVs.

So £40k+ cars are out. Not much choice on the market yet. Most EVs being introduced seem to be high-powered and high priced; and many are SUVs.

[ShoeShop]

How can anyone be excited about this car? Putting price to one side as no one will be paying cash for such a thing, its just ever so dull and boring.

Convincing yourself that you're going to save the planet by purchasing a new shiny Dyson on wheels? The more I read articles on EV's posted on PH, I just feel that I have less in common now with the PH community. How things change....

I'll find comfort in my garage, now with a mildly used 'new' purchase for me: A petrol V8 daily driver, ULEZ friendly. Dont worry, I'll plant a tree. World saved.

[Cornish Pete]

pedrofish said:

I can’t believe people posting on here welcome a lack of dealerships. Can you imagine the nightmare of dealing online when there’s any problems,’you are 43rd..in....the...queue’
Or email chat with no specific section for your particular problem?! no human contact or relationships with local supplier, I honestly don’t relish the massive job losses, and ultimately cold, e-sales future. Also do you really think parts will be any cheaper.? There will be servicing menus with fixed (non negotiable) pricing and is all about maxing Volvo’s profits, don’t be fooled by their customer focussed rhetoric....

Agreed. A good dealer can negotiate decent deals with it's manufacturer and pass savings to us. And they've always got to keep an eye on the franchise in the next town. Once your only choice is the manufacturer it'll be their way or........well no highway actually. You can bet your life they won't be passing any of what was the dealer margin onto us. Sounds like a way to get control and squeeze us 'till we squeak.

[BlackandWhite]

It may finally be time to shoot me now. My inner child who never quite grew up but did so amongst what has transpired to be the swan song of motoring has already thrown itself on its sword. Simplification and convenience at the expense of any form of emotional involvement becomes the murder of motoring. I still can’t decide if it is longed for by the mythical statistically derived Everyman or if it is an imposition........

[Millenialwithtoast]

So Volvo's historically most interesting model line of cars (C30, C70) is now home to a very bland SUV.

I feel as a Volvo owner this should appeal at least in some way to me but it doesn't. No SUV is going to be as comfortable or as practical as my V90 for the same price, and although it's a bit of a barge, an estate is still going to be a lot more enjoyable to drive than something that's 30cm taller than it needs to be.

If manufacturers keep removing non-SUVs from their line-up then we'll have a rather depressing car market very soon.