To celebrate National Women’s Day, Volvo Car South Africa hosted a unique female-empowered racing experience, where a group of inspiring women had the chance to put the Swedish luxury automaker’s first all-electric vehicle, the XC40 P8 Recharge AWD, through its paces in a controlled environment.
Under the expert guidance of well-known advanced driving instructor and stunt driver Natalie Weston, the guests were afforded the opportunity to experience the immediate torque offered by the twin-motor XC40 P8 Recharge, which instantly generates peak twisting force of 660 Nm. They were encouraged to explore the exhilarating acceleration on offer and shown how to safely perform emergency braking techniques.
Volvo Car SA brand ambassadors Jessica Nkosi and Natasha Joubert hosted the group, with each member never having driven an all-electric car on track before.
Shannon Gahagan, Marketing at Volvo Car South Africa, says times have changed, cars have changed and women have changed. The event aimed to empower women with this message and showcase that electric vehicles are for everyone.
While the environmental benefits of battery-powered vehicles are widely known, many potential buyers perhaps don’t realise just how much power these types of cars are capable of generating.
“Though it’s the most compact vehicle in the Volvo range, the XC40 P8 Recharge offers a peak power output as high as 300 kW, resulting in a 0-100 km/h sprint time of just 4.9 seconds. In the spirit of the empowerment of women, it proved the perfect vehicle to give these ladies their first on-track taste of the thrills of electric motoring,” says Gahagan.
Not only is the all-wheel-drive P8 Recharge the most rapid XC40 yet, it’s also packed with standard safety features. The 78 kWh battery pack, for instance, is protected by a dedicated safety cage embedded in the middle of the vehicle’s body structure, complete with a built-in crumple zone. An array of radars, cameras and ultrasonic sensors, meanwhile, enables the deployment of a multitude of active safety systems.
“Around 65 percent of Volvo Car SA’s staff members are female and all were invited to this event, which gave us the opportunity to showcase the XC40 P8 Recharge’s surprising turn of speed as well as celebrate the strength and resilience of women in South Africa,” adds Greg Maruszewski, Managing Director at Volvo Car South Africa.
Just four days after Volvo opened the order books for the XC40 P8 Recharge in April 2021, every unit in the initial allocation was sold. In July 2022, the company announced the availability of a limited number of units of the new single-motor XC40 P6 Recharge, which also quickly sold out and is soon set to arrive as the most affordable all-electric luxury vehicle on the local market.
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