Volvo C40

As the Volvo brand moved more and more upmarket during the 2010s, its smaller cars, the P1 platform C30, S40, and V50, all completed their production runs in without obvious replacements; the V50's compact wagon replacement, the V40, never made it to the USA.

Changing consumer tastes throughout the same period showed declining interest in small premium cars, but increasing interest in premium compact crossover SUVs, or "CUVs", with similar footprints and equipment levels as premium compacts, but a taller seating position and AWD. Vehicles like the BMW X1 and Range Rover Evoque took advantage of this demand and racked up huge sales.

After the launch of its larger, SPA-platform based XC90 and XC60 siblings, Volvo turned to their new global compact architecture, CMA, to break in to the CUV market. As with the SPA platform, CMA (also called the P6 platform) was developed with an eye towards electrification, with built-in support for either internal combustion engines and fuel tanks or electric motors and battery packs. 

Hot on the heels of Volvo's successful new CUV, the XC40, came a new "coupé SUV" with a sloping rear liftgate: the C40. Cast from the same mould as Volvo's Polestar-branded performance EVs, the C40 is the first car wearing Volvo's Iron ring to ditch internal combustion completely, with the sole initial model being the 200-mile-range, eAWD, 400hp Recharge. 

In 2023, a facelift brought new motors, a new RWD single-motor base model, and a larger 82kWh battery pack, pushing range as high as 297 miles in the RWD model, with a bump to 257 miles for AWD-equipped C40s.

Model information is based on the USA vehicle market. Other model variations may exist outside the USA.