Contact Volvo Cars Support

We just picked up our Volvo C40 yesterday. After owning four different EVs/PHEVs over the years from different manufacturers we’re keenly aware of what the competition can and can’t do with their apps. This app looks beautiful. That’s it. The charge status does not update. We plugged the car in at home, the app shows the charge status and time to charge. Fine. But that’s been it. We check the app in the morning, the car is supposedly still only at the charge status it was last night and the “time remaining” in the app has been extended. We worry, and go check the car instrument panel…. No… the car has been charging fine and will be done at the time it said on plug in. So the app isn’t helpful at all. There’s also no way to start and stop a charge in progress, change the charge percentage you want, or the amps drawn from the app. On the none-electric side of things, you can’t close windows if they’d been left open. You can’t flash the lights or turn them on from the app. You can’t honk the horn (when trying to locate it in a parking lot for example) The last items aren’t super critical, but the ability to see *accurate* charge level is crucial. Come on Volvo - the car seems amazing so far, but this app is making the experience feel like we’ve just a huge step backward.

When the gps didn’t work for half a day, I shrugged. Sure, it’s an $80k vehicle, but these things do happen with software. When it didn’t work for 3 days, I started deep breathing exercises. When the Volvo app disconnected from my car and did not recognize that I was signed into the profile on my car, I screamed into my heated steering wheel. When the car wouldn’t let me forget my phone without being connected to the on call app which I can’t do because the app doesn’t recognize the car, it became clear that Volvo needs to invest more in improving their tech—not so it’s good but just so it does what they say it should do. Volvo, increase your tech budget. Pay a market rate for skilled, experienced software developers. You don’t need to be hiring developers for a better online building and buying experience. You’ve got way bigger more important fires to fight. When I drove my XC 60 T8 Polestar Recharge off the lot, I was concerned about when I’d get Car Play. Car Play?! How naive was I. Forget CarPlay. Just make the most basic integration happen. I beg of you. When I trade this car in for a non Volvo vehicle, it will be because of this absolutely terrible infotainment system the likes of which I have never seen before. And I’m sure I won’t be the only one.

Really the only reason to have this app and to pay the annual Volvo OnCall extortion payment is if you live in a cold weather area. Unfortunately, the XC90 has bad seals on the rear door handles which in cold weather freeze the interior door latch in open position. So you have to wait 25-30 mins for the car to warm up enough to melt ice inside door. The app could help reduce this if you could just set the temp to ‘Hi’ or control if you want defrost or dash heat, etc. Alas, there are no options so you only get the default settings which make the car less-frigid but not warm enough to resolve latch ice issue. Enabling heated seats as an option would be appreciated too vs the bare bones options provided currently. Also, I would like to set the timer for longer than 15 mins for the reasons mentioned above. Adding on to previous comments, but the new release is really frustrating in that the “new” features seem to only work with a hybrid or electric model. I still have the stock 72 degrees for remote start. Despite the new updates the climate settings essentially is remote start with a new name and icon. Do better, Volvo.