Where’s Will? Delivering an electric vehicle that doesn’t have an ‘on’ button!  

Flexxilease employee William delivers and tests our vehicles, often choosing unusual and unconventional routes if it saves time and money. In this blog, Will discusses his recent trip delivering a Volvo XC40 and a visit to the pound!

To my surprise, when I sat down inside a Volvo XC40 for the first time, the vehicle turned on without pressing anything. You simply unlock the car and put it straight into gear! I must admit this took me 15 minutes to realise after staring at the ignition button.

This wasn’t the only surprise when I was delivering this car. I also found out there’s no range distance display, the car will only provide battery in %. In this case I was unreliably informed you get around 2 miles per 1%, giving the car a full driving range of 200 miles if the battery is 100% charged.

The Volvo XC40 doesn’t come with a fast charger, only a 3pin charger with a charge time of 14 hours. This is better in some cases as some cars only come with a fast-charging cable. Fast-charging cables have the benefit of speed, but you need a port installed to use this sort of cable. 

Along my journey, I found myself running low on charge, fortunately you can find built-in electric chargers at service stations. When I arrived at Cobham service station, I found a fast charger available and was impressed the Volvo gained 30% charge in 33 mins, costing £7.42.

I may be wrong, but it seems like this is Volvo’s first attempt at an electric car, and although it drives well, there are a few features that could be better to compete in an already crowded market of premium electric cars.

After delivering the Volvo XC40 to a happy customer, I ventured to collect a car that had been impounded by the police in London and waited three hours in a queue to retrieve the vehicle...  I must admit, this is a less glamourous part of collecting cars, but not uncommon unfortunately!

 If you are keen to see what cars we have available at Flexxilease, email info@flexxilease.co.uk today to find out about our fleet and what we can do for you!