For Electric SUV Of The Year, the VOTY award goes to the Volvo C40 Recharge Pure Electric.
For 2023, we’ve had to add a bunch of categories to accommodate the growing range of electric vehicles that have been brought in. The Malaysian government has heavily incentivised EVs by way of tax exemptions and tax rebates. The Electric SUV category looks at a very popular slice of the market that will soon become even more popular with each premium brand having an entry primed for launch. Late last year, one manufacturer took the initiative first and brought not one but TWO electric SUVs for local assembly and it’s none other than Volvo Car Malaysia.
Of their two entries, we felt the C40 Recharge Pure Electric was our pick for Electric SUV of the year. While sharing many core components with the XC40 Recharge Pure Electric, the C40 was designed from the ground-up to be a battery electric vehicle exclusively. This gave Volvo Car designers the incentive to redesign the entire rear section to make it more aerodynamic to increase the effective range.
Volvo Car Malaysia also took the bold step of making the C40 available for purchase online only – the first for any manufacturer in Malaysia. The C40 comes with a 5-year vehicle warranty, an 8-year/160,000km battery warranty, as well as a number of other customer benefits to sweeten the deal.
The Volvo C40 Recharge Pure Electric has an output of 408hp and 660Nm of torque delivered through all four wheels for a 0-100km/h time of just 4.7 seconds. It has a range of 450km on a full charge. 150kW DC Fast Charging enables it to recover up to 80% of its state-of-charge in 28 minutes. Truly one of the more impressive electric SUV entries for 2023.
ABOUT VOTY 2023
The Allianz DSF.my Vehicle Of The Year (VOTY) Award ceremony is the first and only vehicle award event in Malaysia that does not hand out paid awards, nor does it charge winners or participating brands any fee whatsoever. Winners are allowed to use the VOTY event logo free of charge in all marketing materials. Event attendees are not even charged for their seat at the award presentation. All car manufacturers that operate in Malaysia are invited to participate free of charge. All they have to do is let our judges test drive their nominated vehicles.
The nominated vehicles must have been launched in Malaysia in the last 12 months and cannot be a localised minor facelift (body-kits, stickers, wheel upgrades, etc). All judging is independent and is put down to a vote before the winners are selected. Car manufacturers are not informed if they are winning or not before the event.
