Volvo is coming for the Tesla Model 3: “very good-looking” EV to be “more streamlined” than XC40 Recharge

Volvo has dropped yet more hints about its next EV, with the brand suggesting it will go after the Tesla Model 3 with an electric vehicle built on the XC40 Recharge‘s platform, but with a “more streamlined” body shape.

Take that as you will, but we’re taking it to mean a electric passenger car that would pit Swedish manufacturer against the sales chart storming Tesla Model 3.

While keeping coy about many of the important details, Volvo has promised it will be a stunner.

“We will keep you a bit in the dark until we show the car, but I promise you it will be a very good-looking car,” Volvo’s global CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Automotive News Europe.

The new model will be one of a heap of new EV from Volvo between now and 2025, with the brand targeting a 50 per cent electric sales mix by the middle of the decade.

The XC40 Recharge Pure Electric is the first battery electric production vehicle from Volvo and is due in Australia in the second or third quarter of 2021.

The XC40 BEV is driven by two electric motors that generate 300kW and 660Nm and drive all four wheels. It accelerates from zero to 100km/h in just 4.9 seconds.

Powered by a 78kWh lithium-ion battery located between the axles, Volvo claims the XC40 Recharge can cover a WLTP-verified 400km between charges.