Volvo Cars has introduced the XC40 Recharge, the company’s first ever fully electric car and the first model to appear in its brand-new Recharge car line concept.

The XC40 Recharge, based on the  XC40 small SUV, is the first of a family of fully electric Volvos. It represents a significant milestone for Volvo Cars: the company’s first electric car and the first Volvo with a brand-new infotainment system powered by Google’s Android operating system.

Volvo Cars says that over the next five years, it will launch a fully electric car every year, as it seeks to make all-electric cars 50 per cent of global sales by 2025, with the rest hybrids. Recharge will be the overarching name for all chargeable Volvos with a fully electric and plug-in hybrid powertrain.

From early 2020, customers entering the Volvo Cars website will first be asked whether they want a Volvo Recharge car or not. To further encourage electric driving, every Volvo Recharge plug-in hybrid model will come with free electricity for a year, provided through a refund for the average electricity cost during that period.

“We have said this several times before: for Volvo Cars, the future is electric,” said Håkan Samuelsson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Volvo Cars. “Today we take a major new step in that direction with the launch of our fully electric XC40 and the Recharge car line.”

The XC40 Recharge is everything customers expect from a Volvo, with the addition of a fully electric all-wheel-drive powertrain that offers a range of more than 400km (249 miles) on a single charge and output of 408hp. The battery charges to 80 per cent of its capacity in 40 minutes on a fast-charger system.

The Android-powered infotainment system is fully integrated with Volvo On Call, the company’s digital connected services platform. Via Volvo On Call, plug-in hybrid drivers can track how much time they spend driving on electric power.

To meet the anticipated growth in demand for its Recharge cars, Volvo Cars will triple production capacity for electrified cars and will, as of next year, prepare a Designer’s Choice selection of popular Recharge models, offering the potential for radically reduced delivery times. Volvo Cars aims for plug-in hybrid cars to make up 20 per cent of total sales in 2020.

Every Volvo model in the range includes a Recharge option, from the XC40 small SUV, via the 60 series cars to the company’s flagship, the XC90 large SUV. Volvo Cars says it is the only car maker to offer a plug-in variant of every model in its line-up.