Electric Volvo XC40 expected to cost from £35,000 when it arrives in 2019

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Volvo are planning to launch their first electric car in 2019, with a range of 250 miles and a starting price of £35,000. It will probably be an XC40.

It’s only a months since we reported Volvo would have an electric car on sale by 2019, and that it could come with as much as 100kWh of battery power at its disposal.

That came in the wake of the news that Volvo has trademarked the names P5 through to P10, presumably denoting a different powerplant moniker from the existing ‘T’ for petrol and ‘D’ for diesel badges.

But what we also learnt last month is that Volvo are developing a new platform they’re dubbing Modular Electrification Platform (MEP), which we’re hoping is just a modification of the current compact platform for the new 40 Series cars.

We can’t  see Volvo creating a new EV platform when both the SPA and CMA Platforms are able to work with electric powerplants, and we’d be surprised if Volvo decide to go the route of standalone models rather than integrating EV options in to their existing range.

Now we hear from Automotive News that Volvo’s US boss, Lex Kerssemakers (no, not a made-up name) says the first electric Volvo will arrive on sale in 2019 and that it will offer a range of 250 miles and have a price between $35-40k.

That completely rules out a battery pack as big as 100kWh, and it also rules out the new Volvo EV using the larger SPA platform on price alone. The current XC60 starts at $40k in the US, so Volvo are never going to deliver the new XC60 complete with electric powerplant for less than that.

That leaves only a new model on a new platform (by 2019?), or the logical option of electrifying the all new XC40 we’ll see later this year, or its siblings V40 and S40. And the concepts of the new Volvo 40 Series cars featured a BEV powerplant too.

We’ll opt for an electric Volvo XC40 with a 250 mile range and a price of around £35,000 in the UK in two years time, presumably followed soon after by either a new XC60 or XC90 with an electric powertrain and 100kWh battery pack.