[nova.19_exe]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Asterix the Mighty Mover

The pastel green Volvo C40 christened Asterix has arrived at the Volvo showroom. Delivery is set for Tuesday once I'm back in town. Meantime the druid Getafix will give Asterix a ceramic coating. The Volvo C40 is small, power packed and has ohhh so much torque and acceleration that it can only be compared to Asterix with his magic potion.

Haha, congrats on the new ride!! Also, big time Asterix fan!! I've read all of them so I understood the context!!

Can't wait to hear more about 'Asterix'

[subie_socal]

Isn't this the second 'Asterix' of the forum?

Congrats on your new steed, sir

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by subie_socal

Isn't this the second 'Asterix' of the forum?

Congrats on your new steed, sir

Indeed you are right! I thought of Green Gazelle (one of the fastest land animals) but kind of liked the sound of Asterix the Mighty Mover or Asterix the Pocket Rocket - a reference to the car's torque, acceleration and speed.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

… but kind of liked the sound of Asterix the Mighty Mover or Asterix the Pocket Rocket - a reference to the car's torque, acceleration and speed.

Haha … nice analogy. Big fan of the Asterix franchise myself. Maybe I should call my Meridian Obelix then. Glides over or through everything, big beast but in the brain department not the sharpest pencil in the box (dimwitted gearbox).

Greatly looking forward to an epic ownership review from you once you’ve spent more time with this one.

Cheers.

[V.Narayan]

Delivery set for Thursday i.e. tomorrow as I would like my wife to be around for it - the car is in her name after all.

On Tuesday I took the test car for a 20 kms ride to get the hang of the car - size, extremities, acceleration, turning radius, etc and most importantly the regenerative braking. This last one needs practise and muscle memory to be rewired. If I remove my foot from the accelerator the car stops rather rapidly with the risk of getting rear ended! I clearly am going to need several days of practise to get this right. I remain concerned that the Lexus is a normal hybrid without this accelerator driven regeneration* and I'll need two different muscle auto memory circuits in my small brain to manage both - note I am not one of those born drivers - it takes me time to get the hang of a car. I have the option of switching off the one pedal drive facility. Any advice. Some of you younger members would probably be laughing at my predicament - pitfalls as you age!

The other features I am ambivalent about is the lane fixing facility and auto maintaining the distance from the car in the front facility. These can be messy in traffic which is 95% of the story in Delhi-NCR. Maybe useful on long drives on the highways. Let's see. Way too many features

As my car has come to the showroom I took the opportunity to freeze the many screen driven options for driving, entertainment, connecting the phone, etc. The voice command feature is useful.

First impressions - The car's torque, acceleration, braking and grip on the road are very very good. Acceleration is like a racing car! Not that I am ever likely to drive it like one but still. Only thing I compromised on was that charcoal colour interior. I like beige and tan interiors but those are not available with the C40. The green pastel colour is to die for; the rear view is limited with the small back wind screen - bad, Volvo bad, what were you thinking. More when I write a full review in 4 to 6 weeks time.

*though it auto regenerates when coasting or slowing down.

[Red Liner]

I Iike that sage green color. Makes the car look very land roverish. Is this all wheel drive or something? 😍

[V.Narayan]

The Pocket Rocket has clocked in a bit over 500 kms in six days. Looks I'll reach my self imposed 1000 kms mark before writing a thread fairly soon. The grip on the road, the stealthy ride, the overall driving feel and the jet fighter like acceleration are simply outstanding.

After two part charges my guesstimate is that the real world range on a 100% discharge of the battery is about 450kms to 475kms against the 530 kms brochure figure. This of course is also a factor of my driving where I make no effort to conserve energy nor am I using the one-pedal driving option* {though I did give it a try} which increase the regenerative quotient. So, between 30% and 90% battery charge the real world practical range is around 315 to 335 kms - that is the running distance after which I gather I must plug her into the mains.

Volvo have over digitized everything that needs a control input so instead of a simple tactile switch to operate a function one has to go to the screen click a few times to get to the virtual button needed. All this IMHO is a safety hazard and a rather stupid trend amongst car makers these days. Controls should be such that you can operate them in the dark without taking your eyes off the road. These virtual buttons with a dozen options under each are a nuisance IMHO and a safety hazard as sooner or later some drivers will try to adjust things while driving. I am still scratching my head over some minor controls and keep troubling Volvo over the phone.

My wife says she is happy with the interiors and its five shades of black so I have made my peace with the interiors. The feature I love is the Google voice command system. As I'm home alone today took the car to an expressway stretch some distance from my home and clipped off at 110kmph. She is steady as a rock, just gripping the road, no swaying and very little noise. 99% of the time I would not touch three digit speeds even on a highway but thought I'll check her out once.

Net net the car is addictive. In the first three days as I struggled with the over digitized controls I suffered from buyers anxiety of whether I'd made a mistake in investing Rs 66L on the car. But now as I settle down I am falling in love.

*I've opted not to use the one-pedal option. It requires a separate set of muscle memory and therefore instant reactions compared to the traditional automatic or hybrid. My garage includes now this Volvo C40, a Lexus ES300h and a manual Amaze. Two different driving styles burned into the sub-conscious auto reactions is more than enough - no point adding a third option and risking a rear ending. Also one-pedal is more for countries with disciplined & predictive driving

[nmn.070]

Thank you for the regular updates. I'm almost closing in on the same vehicle. I'm sure you must have considered the ev6 at this price. Not really able to pick one ultimately. Can you help with what made you choose this over the ev6 which is more spacious and on a newer ev architecture. My requirements are very similar to yours.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by nmn.070

Thank you for the regular updates. I'm almost closing in on the same vehicle. I'm sure you must have considered the ev6 at this price. Not really able to pick one ultimately. Can you help with what made you choose this over the ev6 which is more spacious and on a newer ev architecture. My requirements are very similar to yours.

I did not evaluate the EV6. I like Volvo and have had almost a decade of very good after sales service from them, established relations at the dealer level and those things matter a lot to me. Plus, I like the thoroughness of Volvo's engineering, focus on safety and the superbly high quality of materials. I did not set out to buy an EV. I just happen to have ended up with one. Between the XC40 and C40 I chose the latter finally due to the longer range. Also, I really like the looks of the XC40 and C40.

[nmn.070]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I did not evaluate the EV6. I like Volvo and have had almost a decade of very good after sales service from them, established relations at the dealer level and those things matter a lot to me. Plus, I like the thoroughness of Volvo's engineering, focus on safety and the superbly high quality of materials. I did not set out to buy an EV. I just happen to have ended up with one. Between the XC40 and C40 I chose the latter finally due to the longer range. Also, I really like the looks of the XC40 and C40.

Thanks for clearing it out. Have a wonderful time with the new car. It's a stunning color! Also, the c40 is rear biased instead of 50:50 so definitely the one to go for right now until xc40 gets the update.
Cheers!

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The Pocket Rocket has clocked in a bit over 500 kms in six days. Looks I'll reach my self imposed 1000 kms mark before writing a thread fairly soon. The grip on the road, the stealthy ride, the overall driving feel and the jet fighter like acceleration are simply outstanding.

Eagerly waiting for your thread. At least partly inspired by you, I have been evaluating EVs as well. Tested out the Tata Nexon EV, MG ZS EV and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 - and have settled on the Ioniq. Did not try the Volvo, BMW or Kia since I concluded that I would be tempted into another upgrade if I drove those high power vehicles. Should hopefully be getting my new car in coming weeks.

[dealer]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

*I've opted not to use the one-pedal option. It requires a separate set of muscle memory and therefore instant reactions compared to the traditional automatic or hybrid. My garage includes now this Volvo C40, a Lexus ES300h and a manual Amaze. Two different driving styles burned into the sub-conscious auto reactions is more than enough - no point adding a third option and risking a rear ending. Also one-pedal is more for countries with disciplined & predictive driving

Hey V.Narayan,
I would urge you to practice one pedal driving and give it a chance. Even in a city like Jaipur which has less but far worse traffic (in terms of road sense) than Delhi/Gurgaon, one pedal driving works like a treat. Ever since I got the XC40 Recharge I have been using one-pedal driving and now I find the traditional two pedal automatic to be a hassle. Infact compared to all the other EVs I test drove, the throttle and brake tuning in the one pedal mode was the biggest difference between brands with Volvo being the best. To put this into context driving with the one pedal mode, I've pressed the brake maybe twice-thrice in the past 4 months for emergency braking but other than that there's no need for it.

[Tokengrip]

Agree with dealer with regard to one pedal driving. It really does work like a treat. Yes it does take a few drives to gauge distances and to become comfortable with the feature.

I use it on the Ioniq 5 and the only gripe i have is that i have to manually set it everytime i start the car. I like it so much that everytime i now use the MG ZS EV in our garage or constantly bothers me that there isn't one pedal driving

[McLaren Rulez]

Isn't the one-pedal mode configurable to have milder regen? Or is the mildest setting still too strong?

[nmn.070]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

Isn't the one-pedal mode configurable to have milder regen? Or is the mildest setting still too strong?

The volvos have only 3 settings for one pedal drive.

Off - coasting. No regen
On - full regeneration
Auto - on or off depending on road condition ahead using radar and cameras

The auto is slightly unpredictable but maybe one gets used to it overtime. On is quite strong regen so may not be to everyone's liking.