Volvo XC40 1.5 litre T5 Twin Engine Plug-in Hybrid SNEAKS in to Beijing

The first hybrid plug-in version of the new Volvo XC40 – the XC40 T5 Twin Engine – has made a debut in Beijing, but with no fanfare and no details from Volvo.

With everyone and his dog seemingly intent on taking baby steps to BEVs with a plug-in hybrid, you’d have thought Volvo would have made a big deal of the arrival of the first plug-in hybrid version of the XC40. But they haven’t – at least not yet.

Yesterday, when we reported Volvo are planning to have half of their sales from full electric cars by 2025, we published the first photo from Volvo of the XC40 T5 Twin Engine, fully expecting that, once the BEV target for 2025 was out and in the news, we’d get proper details on the plug-in XC40. But, oddly, we haven’t.

It seems a bit strange that Volvo aren’t yet making a song and dance about the plug-in XC40, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a decent idea of what to expect, based on what we know from Volvo and the debut of the same plug-in hybrid powertrain in a Geely.

So although the figures may not be bang on, we’re expecting the plug-in hybrid to come with the same 1.5 litre three-cylinder engine as the XC40 T3, but rather than the T3’s 154bhp it will get 174bhp as well as an electric motor good for 74bhp for a total of 247bhp. Which is pretty much the same as the regular T5 XC40, but with official economy of around 175mpg.

Of course, the plus for buyers is that you will be able to run the T5 Twin engine as an EV for up to 30 miles (more like 20 in the real world) and business users will benefit from low BIK rates.

At some point Volvo will deliver the official numbers for the T5 Twin engine in the XC40, but we’re expecting it to be on sale in the UK before the end of the year.