Volvo Bets a Gas XC40 Can Replace Two EVs

Volvo will sell the 2028 XC40 in America as a gas mild-hybrid and will drop the electric EX40. The compact reaches U.S. dealers in early 2027 with Google Gemini, a larger screen, and one 247-horsepower B5 drivetrain.

The new lights and cabin are a mid-cycle polish on a car that has been in production for years. The product bet underneath is the one that matters: after killing the EX30, Volvo is asking U.S. compact buyers to stay with gas while its cheapest electric SUV becomes the EX60 at $59,795.

Volvo Is Betting the Gas XC40 Can Hold the US

On September 10, 2026, Volvo published significant updates to the 40 series covering the XC40, EX40 and EC40. The U.S. version of that story is narrower. America gets the refreshed XC40 as a 2028 model. It does not get the matching electric twin.

A Volvo spokesperson said the EX60 P6 is now the entry electric SUV for U.S. drivers, at $59,795 including destination, against $56,545 for the outgoing EX40. That is a $3,250 step up for a larger SUV with more range. Anyone who wanted a small Volvo EV is out of the showroom.

Akhil Krishnan, interim lead for the 30 and 40 series, pitched the refresh as a long stay for a car the company still treats as a volume product.

By enhancing the design, technology and safety features of our 40 series cars, we’ve created the best versions of our 40 series yet. These already popular models are now set to continue being among our best-selling cars for years to come.

Akhil Krishnan, Interim Lead for the 30 and 40 Series, Volvo Cars

That line is global. In the United States it has to do more work, because the electric half of the same family is leaving. The conversation around the reveal treated the EX40’s U.S. death as the news, and the new screen as a given. That reading is fair. Gemini was already on the way into older Volvos. The hardware and the powertrain cut are what actually change on the lot.

After the EX30, the Compact EV Was Already Finished

This is the third small electric Volvo to leave the U.S. in about a year. The EX30 and EX30 Cross Country were pulled after the 2026 model year. The coupe-shaped EC40 was already gone after 2025. The EX40, sold from 2019 as the XC40 Recharge and renamed in 2024, now follows.

Volvo Car USA sold 5,409 EX30s in 2025, its first full year, then ended the car after tariffs, a higher sticker than first promised, and the loss of the $7,500 federal EV credit. The same plant problem sits under the XC40: U.S. cars come from Ghent, Belgium, so they are imports in a market that has made imported electrics expensive to land.

The sales mix already pointed the same way. Volvo Car USA reported sales of 22,651 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026, down 32 percent from 33,285 a year earlier. XC40 volume in that quarter was 3,403, down 47 percent from 6,469. Electrified sales in the quarter fell 39 percent. Globally, Volvo sold over 710,000 cars in 2025, with an electrified share of 46 percent. America is the market that would not follow.

THE COMPACT EV RETREAT

1. 2017: Volvo launches the XC40 compact SUV, the car that still underpins the 2028 refresh.
2. 2019: The XC40 Recharge arrives as Volvo’s first mass-produced electric model.
3. September 4, 2024: Volvo drops its plan to sell only fully electric cars by 2030 and allows mild hybrids to remain.
4. March 2026: Volvo Car USA ends EX30 and EX30 Cross Country sales after the 2026 model year.
5. April 30, 2026: Volvo and Google start putting Gemini into Google-built-in Volvos dating back to 2020, including the XC40.
6. September 10, 2026: Volvo unveils the refreshed 40 series and confirms the EX40 will not return to the United States.

Two years earlier, Jim Rowan, then chief executive, said the company still believed its future was electric, and that 90 to 100 per cent electrified by 2030 would include plug-in hybrids, with up to 10 percent left for mild hybrids if needed. The 2028 XC40 is that residual, sold as the whole compact offering in the United States.

One Engine, Standard All-Wheel Drive, 27 mpg

U.S. buyers get one powertrain: the XC40 B5 AWD. It is a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four with a mild-hybrid starter, an eight-speed automatic, and all-wheel drive as standard. Front-wheel-drive B4 cars, which made 194 horsepower in 2026, are gone.

Output stays at 247 horsepower. Torque rises from 258 lb-ft to 266 lb-ft. Volvo quotes 6.3 seconds to 60 mph, two-tenths slower than the outgoing B5, and 27 mpg on the EPA combined cycle, one point better than the same drivetrain before the refresh. Towing stays at 3,500 pounds. Ground clearance stays at 8.3 inches.

THE 2028 XC40 B5 AGAINST THE CAR IT REPLACES

Those are small mechanical moves on a nine-year-old platform. Volvo is not pretending this is a new car. It is simplifying the lot: one engine, all-wheel drive on every U.S. XC40, and no electric badge in the same showroom. In Europe the EX40 and EC40 keep going, with preliminary WLTP ranges of up to 575 km and 584 km. That split is the wager in plain sight.

Why Gemini Is Not the New Part

The cabin change people will notice first is the screen. The old 9-inch display is out. A vertically mounted 11.2-inch unit now sits proud of the dash, closer to Volvo’s electric models, still paired with the familiar 12.3-inch driver cluster. Volvo says the new interface needs fewer taps for common tasks, and an embedded modem handles over-the-air updates. There is a revised wireless charger, new ambient light in the dash and doors, and a cleaner finish with less gloss-black plastic.

Google Gemini is the voice layer on that screen, built for natural conversation on navigation, messages, media and trip planning. It is easy to write that as the 2028 XC40’s headline, and plenty of coverage did. The calendar does not support it. On April 30, 2026, Volvo said Google Gemini begins rolling out to eligible U.S. cars with Google built-in, including XC40s dating back to 2020, with Google Assistant still available if a driver declines the update.

So the 2028 car is not the first Volvo you can talk to this way. It is the first XC40 whose center screen and user interface were designed around that software from the factory, on a floating panel instead of a recessed 9-inch unit. If you already own a Google-built-in XC40, the assistant is an update. If you are shopping the 2028, the new hardware is the purchase.

Volvo previewed the cabin in London ahead of the unveil. Trim now includes Brown Ash or Black Ash wood, or aluminium, lit by the new ambient scheme. Arianne Cardamom leather, a rich brown hide paired with Brown Ash, is offered for the first time in an XC40. That is a small luxury tell: the cheap-feeling compact is being dressed as the car that has to carry the brand’s small-SUV traffic without an EV beside it.

Thinner Thor’s Hammers and Real Leather

Outside, Volvo cut visual noise rather than adding it. The Thor’s Hammer Matrix LED headlights are pared to a pair of light slashes that sit in blacked-out clusters. The tail lamps follow the same idea, two strips that read as continuous after the LEDs are laminated into the surface. The grille, hood, front wings and bumper are new, as are the tailgate and rear bumper. Negative space already used on the lower doors now runs into the corners, so the body throws more shadow and fewer sharp edges in town.

New diamond-cut wheels come in 18-, 19- and 20-inch sizes. The EX40, where it remains on sale, uses a flat body-colored panel instead of the XC40’s slashed grille, which is the cleanest way to tell the twins apart at a glance. On U.S. pavement that comparison is academic. Only the gas car is coming.

The proportions do not change. This is still the short compact Volvo, built for cities, with the same basic cabin and cargo layout. The leather and wood are there to make that package feel more expensive, because the company is no longer offering a matching electric halo in the same size.

Twelve New Sensors and a Door Opening Alert

The safety rewrite is the other factory change that is not a skin. Volvo fitted a new software and sensor platform: new front and corner radars, a new front camera, new rear corner radars, 12 new ultrasonic sensors and new parking cameras, all feeding a stronger central controller that can take over-the-air updates.

THE NEW DRIVER SUPPORT KIT

• Door Opening Alert: Warns occupants before a door swings into a cyclist or passing traffic.
• Pilot Assist: The optional highway helper now adds lane change assist and is tuned to follow the road more smoothly.
• 360 camera: The optional surround view now includes a 3D model of the XC40 that can be rotated on the screen.
• Collision kit: Automatic emergency steering and braking, plus collision avoidance and mitigation, run on the new camera and radar set.

Those features are the argument Volvo can still make when the powertrain is a known mild-hybrid. The company built its name on crash protection. A door that will not open into a bike, and a camera that shows the car in three dimensions at walking speed, are easier to sell than another 8 lb-ft of torque.

U.S. Deliveries Begin in Early 2027

Production of the refreshed 40 series starts later this autumn in Ghent. Volvo is skipping the 2027 model year on the XC40, stretching 2026 cars until the 2028 stock arrives. U.S. deliveries are scheduled for early 2027. Order books are already open in some markets, including a Black Edition. U.S. pricing will be set closer to launch.

The current 2026 XC40 B5 starts at $43,995. That is the only hard U.S. sticker on the table until Volvo publishes the new one. Tariffs on Belgian-built cars can still move that number. The EX60, at $59,795, is the electric alternative Volvo wants those buyers to consider if they were waiting for an EX40.

WHAT WE KNOW

• U.S. powertrain: The 2028 XC40 is B5 AWD only, with the B4 and the EX40 both gone from the American lot.
• Cabin hardware: The 11.2-inch screen, new UI and factory Gemini sit on top of a Gemini rollout that already covers Google-built-in Volvos from 2020.
• Timing: Ghent starts production later this fall, and U.S. cars are due in early 2027 as 2028 models.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• 2028 price: Volvo has not published U.S. MSRP, destination or trim walk-up for the refreshed B5.
• The compact EV hole: Volvo has pointed to the EX60 as the new electric floor and has discussed a cheaper SPA3 crossover later; neither is a 2028 XC40 Recharge.

Until those two items land, the bet is already on the window sticker in all but the dollars. Volvo is sending America a sharper XC40 with a bigger screen and a thicker sensor pack, and it is not sending the electric one that shares its name.