Volvo wants the XC40 to appeal to young families, and so the cabin features plenty of useful storage trays and bins, most of which are lined with removable rubbery mats. The interior benefits similarly from the Scandinavian design aesthetic. Other, bigger Volvos have featured a little flag on the interior, stitched into the seam of the front seats the way denim companies sew a tab to the back pocket of their jeans. My favorite design detail is the little rubber Swedish flag that pokes out from the shut line of the hood, just ahead of the driver's door. Volvo's "Thor's hammer" headlights and that wide front grille place it clearly within the Volvo corporate look the tall LED taillights are unique to the XC40 but again refer back to the designs of Volvos past. Hardy black plastic trim around the car's sills and wheel arches is there for the same reason, plus to add a bit of protection against those inevitable "park-by-touch" scrapes and scratches. It's angular rather than boxy, and our test car's white-painted roof (a $300 option) works effectively to counteract the crossover's height. Volvos have always had rather distinctive styling, and the XC40 adheres to this trend. In both cases, the internal combustion engine is a turbocharged version of Volvo's 2.0L gasoline direct-injection four-cylinder unit, and the eight-speed automatic gearbox is the sole transmission option. Here in the US, we only get two options right now: the 187hp (140kW), 221lb-ft (300Nm) FWD T4, which starts at $34,345, or the 248hp (185kW), 258lb-ft (350Nm) AWD T5, which starts at $36,345. I'm going to assume it's flexible enough to make smaller sedans, hatchbacks, and wagons, too, but so far across the four aforementioned brands we've only seen crossovers. It was also designed to work with three- or four-cylinder engines, front- or all-wheel drive, or with a plug-in hybrid EV powertrain (as well as next year's BEV). CMA gives a lot of flexibility when designing a car about the only fixed dimension is the one between the front axle and the driver's pedals. So it's unlike the other Volvos (and yes, the Polestar plug-in) we've driven until now. Further Reading Volvo’s XC40 crossover goes fully battery electric for “under $48,000”The XC40 is the first Volvo to use the company's Compact Modular Architecture, a toolkit for building smaller cars and crossovers that is also going to be used by Polestar, Lynk & Co, and also parent company Geely.
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