Volvo XC40 - Interior, design and technology

The design of the Volvo XC40 has deliberately moved away from the more luxurious, grown-up presence offered by the larger Volvo XC60 and Volvo XC90 models – but that doesn’t mean there’s no scope for impressive design touches or the latest technology. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The car’s styling was inspired by small robots that the British designer, Ian Kettle, saw in science-fiction movies. The end result is lots of simple, clean, resolved lines – and a look that manages to look chunky and cute at the same time. It’s helped by a further evolution of Volvo’s ‘Thor’s Hammer’ headlight motif at the front end and vertical tail-lights at the rear. 

The XC40 also received a subtle facelift in 2022, which added a reshaped front bumper, slightly slimmer LED headlights and a rear bumper that does without the exhaust cut-outs you'll find on earlier examples of XC40.

Inside, there’s not a great deal in the way of opulence, and yet the XC40 still manages to deliver a dose of Swedish cool, much in the same way as a well-resolved IKEA living room display. There’s remarkably little clutter, and although the actual amount of space isn’t any greater than the class average, the Volvo’s plethora of neat, practical touches make the XC40 feel a lot more ‘real-world liveable’ than many of its rivals.

The XC40 gets the same nine-inch portrait-layout infotainment display as the XC60 and XC90, as well as a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel instead of conventional dials. The latter looks good and can be made to display a map, which is useful when following sat-nav instructions, but it’s nowhere near as configurable as the Audi Virtual Cockpit system, or as easy to use.

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Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment

The XC40 features a nine-inch portrait-oriented central touchscreen running an Android-based operating system with built-in online Google services, just like Volvo's larger XC60 and XC90 SUV siblings. The graphics are sharp, and the shortcut keys are bolder and less fiddly to use than previous Volvo setups – although they could still be made bigger.

The screen’s loading times are good, but we found that it took quite a long time from typing an address into the system before eventually getting the first navigation instruction. You can utilise voice activation by saying ‘Okay Google’, but you still have to wait for it to calculate. Google’s live traffic info means the route and time to the destination will be accurate. 

There is a physical home button below the touchscreen, while further down, you'll find a large volume dial and a row of buttons, including the hazard warning light and heated rear window (Plus trim adds a button for the heated windscreen). The rest of the climate controls and air-con settings are adjusted through the touchscreen. For a first-time user, the set-up takes a little getting used to. 

While there is smartphone connectivity, you’re encouraged to log into your Google account, along with any of the pre-installed apps you might use, such as Spotify. It’s hard to fault once you’re logged in, but it takes a long time to set up. Wireless phone charging is provided as standard, and the 250-watt, eight-speaker sound system that comes with the car provides decent sound quality. The top-of-the-range Ultra comes with an upgraded 600-watt, 12-speaker Harman Kardon sound system, which is excellent.