What 14 owners told NHTSA about the 2024 Volvo XC40 Recharge

The contact owned a 2024 Volvo XC40. The contact stated that his wife was entering a parking lot at approximately 10 MPH when she heard the vehicle engine abnormally revving and the vehicle independently accelerated. The vehicle drove through the parking lot and crashed into a tree. The contact stated that the driver's and passenger front air bags deployed, and the front collision avoidance had not engaged. The contact stated that the vehicle crashed into the tree almost at the center of the front bumper and grill. The hood had been crushed, the grill cracked, and the bumper had been torn off. The contact stated that the police arrived on scene but did not write a report since no other vehicles were involved. The contact stated that his wife had scrapes and bruises on both arms and scrapes on her nose and forehead. The wife was not attended to by EMT, but later went to the ER for neck and back pain. The vehicle was towed to an impound lot and later declared a total loss by the contact's insurance provider. The contact had contacted the manufacturer, who sent a technician to download information from the vehicle computers. The contact stated that a summary was released by the manufacturer that indicated that the crash was a driver error. The failure mileage was approximately 8,000.

NHTSA ODI 11723648

My wife pulled into a neighbor's driveway and put the car in Park. The car stopped. She reached over to the passenger's seat to pick up an item and the car lurched forward, crashing into the closed garage door before she could stop it. There were no warning lights alerting her that this would happen. She later told me, though, there had been previous instances of the car "bucking" after she had put it into park. The incident clearly posed a safety risk to my wife and others. Had someone been standing in front of the car when this happened, they could have been seriously injured or killed. Had the car not stopped after hitting the garage door, my wife, too, could have been seriously injured or killed. Had this happened in an area such as a parking lot, others also might have been injured. Volvo advised me not to file a police report at this time. The vehicle was inspected at Wallace Volvo in Stuart, Florida, and would be available for additional inspection. Volvo claims to have found liquid on internal parts. The larger, and more important question, though, is how the vehicle’s design could have allowed that to happen. Facts clearly point to a design flaw. The vehicle design clearly allows liquid to reach the parts in question and create the problem we experienced. If Volvo had designed the vehicle with a “tight” interior – a design that would have protected internal parts and not left them vulnerable – no amount of liquid in any amount from any source under any circumstance would have ended up in the vehicle’s internal parts. In my claim to Volvo, I asked that they make repairs to assure that this never happens again. They conceded that they did perform "repairs" to the vehicle but called it a "one-time good will gesture." I also asked Volvo to pay for the body damage to my vehicle and the damage ($2,364) caused to my neighbor's garage door by the malfunctioning vehicle. Volvo has refused to compensate me for the damage caused by their malfunctioning vehicle.

NHTSA ODI 11614571