Powerless or unresponsive car

If the car's batteries are flat, they will disconnect from the car to protect themselves from damage. Your car may not respond to some of your actions, including trying to unlock or start the car. Depending on the situation, you may be able to use the batteries' reserve energy to help charge your car.

• The car is driven to 0% battery level and is then not immediately recharged.
• The car is left with a low battery level. If not plugged in for charging, the battery level drops further as the car uses a small amount of power while parked.
• The car is left without being charged for a long time, which allows the battery level to drop.
• Low temperatures temporarily reducing battery capacity below the required level to keep the car powered.

• Use of accessories or power-consuming car functions.
• High temperatures triggering battery cooling.

If the car can't be started or driven due to flat batteries, there are several recovery actions you can try, depending on the situation.

Recovering a responsive car

If your car’s battery level is drained to 0% while turned on, your car will remain responsive for a limited time. The batteries' reserve energy can power the car and allow you to initiate charging of the traction battery. If you are driving when the battery level is drained to 0%, the car will not stop immediately. However, it's important that you conserve the remaining reserve energy and stop as soon as it's safe to do so.

• If your car is responsive and you can charge it where it's parked, charge it immediately.
• If your car can't be charged at your current location, have the car recovered and transported to a charging source. Make sure you do this as soon as possible to avoid a complete shutdown of the car. This is important for battery health but it also keeps essential functionality available for you to use in an emergency.

Important

If you don't charge your car quickly enough, the reserve energy will run out and your car will become unresponsive. If this happens, you will need to take different actions.

Recovering an unresponsive car

If your car's traction battery is drained to 0% battery level while parked, the car will be unresponsive and you won't be able to unlock or charge it as usual.

• If there is a charging source where the car is immobilised, it may be possible to temporarily power the car using a special exterior 12 V terminal. This can allow you to access the car and initiate charging.
• If the car can't be charged where it is, it needs to be transported by a recovery vehicle to a location with a charging source. An authorised Volvo workshop has the equipment to power the car and charge it.

Using the 12 V terminal

In the event of a total loss of power, the car will be unresponsive. So that you can access the car and charge it, the car can be powered for a short time using the externally accessible 12 V terminal. It's accessed by removing a small panel on the underside of the rear bumper, on the left side of the car.

Warning

Do not use or connect anything to the on-board diagnostic port ​while the car is being powered via the 12 V terminal.

• The 12 V terminal should only be used for the purpose of accessing and charging the car as part of immobilisation recovery.
• You cannot charge another car or similar external source from this point.
• Do not connect another 12 V battery to the terminal.
• Only use a 12 V charger with a maximum charging current below 30 A. Connecting any power source that delivers currents higher than 30 A might open an e-fuse connected to the terminal, which will temporarily disable it.

Important

Minimum charge level

When powering your car via the 12 V terminal, it is important to keep the connection stable. Do not disconnect the 12 V terminal until your car has reached a battery level of at least 1%. If you remove the power source from the 12 V terminal before your car's battery level has reached 1%, the car's system will shut down. This can cause damage to the power source.

Powered down car

If you have connected a power source to the 12 V terminal and the car powers down, it could mean an e-fuse has opened. Wait to see if it powers back up before disconnecting. If this happens repeatedly, it could mean there is a different fault. Contact an authorised Volvo workshop.

Other no-power scenarios

There may be cases where you are sure that the battery level is not low and your car is still unresponsive or only partially responsive. In these cases, it might indicate that there is an electrical, hardware or software fault preventing the car from working properly.

If you can’t identify the cause of the problem or solve it by referring to the manual, contact an authorised Volvo workshop.