Hi Martin,
I’m going to move this to the feedback section so people can vote on this suggestion.
Based on this thread it will work without notifications if there is no google play services installed.
But note that you’ll either have to download the app from a third party website or download to your old phone and export with something like this to the p40 if you want to get any app updates.
It looks like it’s possible to install GMS (Google Mobile Services) on the phone if you are tech savvy , see the article linked here https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-30-pro/how-to/install-gms-google-play-store-t3992095. XDA forums are the go to place for these kind of things, so have a look at what other people are saying.
Personally without apps like Google pay (which still won’t work even if you do get GMS working on the phone) and android auto, together with random apps probably not working it’s not a phone I would get, at least until developers start putting apps on Huawei.
Based on Huawei’s market share it’s probably going to happen sometime , but apps that are heavily reliant on Google play frameworks are going to take a long time.
Hope that helps.