DEDICATED EV platforms are becoming widespread, and the best battery-electrics are without doubt those that were built from the ground-up to forgo any form of combustion power. However, manufacturers are still banking some easy wins by hooking all-electric hardware into legacy (read: combustion) platforms, often to good effect. Two examples of that strategy are the cars we have here: the BMW iX1 and Volvo XC40 Recharge.
BMW’s iX1 launched in the middle of 2023 as the companion to its petrol-powered X1, while… wait, isn’t the XC40 Recharge a plug-in hybrid? It used to be – Volvo Australia canned that configuration back in 2022 and promptly reincarnated it as a pure electric car; hence its fairly unimaginative full name: the Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric.
The XC40 Recharge received an update last year with a battery upgrade to 82kWh for a claimed 500km single-charge range, as well as the addition of a more affordable rear-wheel-drive
