Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/08/16/review_volvo_v60_plug_in_hybrid_4wd/

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid: Eco, economy and diesel power

A 143mph 4-wheel drive electric estate car? Oh yes

By Alun Taylor

Posted in Personal Tech, 16th August 2013 09:03 GMT

Review Volvo’s new V60 Plug-in Hybrid is the second vehicle of its type to go on sale in Blighty after the Toyota Prius Plug-in, which we drove and reviewed last year. The Volvo, however, has the potential to be of more interest to prospective e-car owners. Why? It can drive further and faster using just electricity than the Toyota, has a diesel rather than petrol engine, and has four-wheel drive.

Volvo V60

Handsome brute: Volvo’s V60

Those are all very promising developments in my book.

Flip up the bonnet of the V60 and you will find a 2.4-litre five-cylinder turbodiesel engine which produces 215bhp.

Poke around under the rear or in the boot and you’ll see clues that there is something moving at the back end too, namely a 200-cell 11.2kWh lithium-ion battery pack and a 20kW (27 bhp) electric motor.

That’s actually the continuous power rating - ask it nicely and it can temporarily gird its loins to deliver 50kW (67bhp). More important than either figure is the amount of torque the electric motor produces: 200Nm (148lb-ft).

Volvo V60

A traditional Volvo snout. Note the radar box on the left

As in all Volvos, the diesel engine drives the front wheels but the electric motor powers the rear ones so you can drive along in either front-, rear- or four-wheel drive. Waft about in electric-only mode and you can get to a top speed of 78mph (125kph). Compare that to the Prius which will only hit 30mph (48kph) before the petrol engine fires up.

Of more importance is the battery-only range. That’s quoted by Volvo as 31 miles (50km) - double the best you’ll get out of the Prius and close to a third of the maximum range of a Nissan Leaf. I found Volvo’s e-range estimation to be reasonably accurate. Across a selection of battery run-down trips I got 22, 31, 28 and 33 miles (35km, 50km, 45km and 53km) before the car refused to stay in electric-only mode though the first journey was conducted at high speeds on the open road.

Volvo V60

In case you forget it’s a plug-in hybrid

Get behind the wheel and it takes a while to notice the driving mode selector with options for Pure (electric only), Hybrid and Power. Unlike Peugeot in its RXH, Volvo hasn’t made the drive selector a big declamatory affair. That’s a design choice I approved of: I know my car’s a hybrid, my passengers don't need to know.

The first setting is self-explanatory while the last also does what it says on the tin and delivers the maximum power from engine and electric motor to get the V60 from standstill to 60mph (96kph) in under six seconds and on to a top speed of 143mph (230kph).

In addition, there is the AWD button, which permanently engages the 4WD system, and a Save switch which ring-fences the plug-in charge so the driver can exploit the car’s maximum electric range later in the journey.

Volvo V60

Enormous exhausts

In Hybrid mode, the V60 drives like any other hybrid – plug-in or otherwise – and blends drive from the two sources to minimise fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. On the go, the battery is partly recharged by both the regenerative braking system and the 7kW generator/starter motor under the bonnet.

As with the plug-in Prius, I was impressed by how often the V60 was able to operate under electric-only drive despite the fact that the plug-in charge was showing as fully depleted. It’s the nature of the beast that plug-in hybrids are stronger hybrids than their non plug-in brethren.

Wheelie wierd: When your car picks its own drive

The idea of driving a car that at any given moment may be operating in FWD, RWD or AWD may give some of you cause for concern but to be perfectly honest the automatic gearbox, the suspension and their associated computer systems do a good job of disguising just how the V60 is being powered at any given moment.

Volvo V60

There’s a 2.4-litre turbodiesel under the bonnet

The majority of the time the average driver will neither know nor care how the V60 is being propelled, the only clues being that either everything is deathly quiet, meaning electric drive, or you’re not stuck in a field, revealing all-wheel drive. To help maximise electric-only range there is handy hybrid power meter in the binnacle: it’s a very simple graphic that shows you how hard you can accelerate before the diesel motor has to fire up.

Charging the V60 couldn’t be easier. The standard connector is located behind a panel in the front left wing and can charge from any domestic socket with an output of 16A or less. I found that a full charge from a 13A socket took around four hours using the charge cable that lives in the boot.

Bearing in mind that the V60’s drive battery is just over half the capacity of that fitted to Renault’s Zoe, I wonder if Volvo wouldn’t have been wise to also set it up for 7kW charging.

I suspect many V60 owners would happily cough up for a fast-charge wall box if it meant getting a full 'leccy top-up in under two hours. Buy a Zoe and Renault will install a 7kW charger at your house for free.

Volvo V60

No e-car sillyness in the LCD instrument binnacle

Owners can check their V60’s charge status using Volvo’s On Call Android and iOS app, though this wasn’t something I could set up on my test car, the registration system not being designed with a per-car new user each week in mind.

In Hybrid mode, V60’s official EU consumption figure is 155mpg (65.89km per litre) but that’s a tad meaningless because it is entirely dependent on how often you plug in and charge. Fully charge your V60 each day and then drive for 35 miles (56km) and by the end of the week you will end up with a consumption figure of several hundred miles to the gallon.

The 48g/km CO2 emission figure is similarly nebulous but does at least mean you won’t be tapped up for the London congestion charge, which now kicks in for any car putting out more than 75g/km.

Volvo V60

Powerrrrr!

In the real world, with all the plug-in charge used and running in Hybrid mode, I was getting around 57mpg (24km per litre) which compares with the V60 D5’s official combined figure of 45.6mpg (19.4km per litre). Without having both cars on hand to compare I wouldn’t want to put too much emphasis on my findings, but in mixed driving I reckon it’s fair to say Hybrid will get you an extra 10-12 miles further down the road from every gallon of diesel you put in it.

That’s just as well because the fuel tank is 22.5 litres smaller. There’s also a nine per cent drop in luggage capacity thanks to the battery pack eating into the boot space but that doesn’t have much of an impact of the vehicle’s fundamental practicality.

When the V60 reverts to standard Hybrid mode I was expecting things to go just a little pear-shaped because I suspected that the five-cylinder diesel engine would prove to be inherently rougher and noisier than the four-pot petrol motor in the Prius.

No small Torque

I needn’t have worried: the change from electric to hybrid drive even at low speeds is close to seamless mechanically and barely noticeable aurally. Assuming you have the stereo on and are not pretending to be a motoring Trappist, you’ll be hard pushed to tell when the diesel engine fires up, a very slight increase in cabin vibration being the only telltale.

Volvo V60

You plug it in here

Of course even if you have the ears of a bat and the sensitivity of a Hans Christian Andersen princess you could argue that less-than-perfect refinement is a small price to pay for the economy and torque (440Nm/325lb-ft at 1500rpm) of a diesel. And you’d have a point: the combination of a 2.4-litre turbodiesel and an electric motor means the V60 Plug-In goes like a scalded cat.

Surfing along on a colossal tidal wave of torque makes for an extraordinarily satisfying way of getting between A and B quickly and economically. And, thanks to the four-wheel drive system, you can press on even if driving conditions are less than ideal.

The V60’s cabin is a fitting match for the technology underneath. The standard-fit satnav is pretty good - though it lacks postcode search - and the audio system boasts 4 x 40W of amplification and eight speakers.

The 8-inch LCD instrument panel is sharp and clear too. The rest of the cabin is trimmed and built to the standard you’d expect from a high end Volvo. In a welcome improvement from the S60 DRIVe I tested for El Reg back in 2011, the new V60 has a footrest for the driver.

Volvo V60

The well-appointed cabin is a nice place to sit

Volvo also deserves a pat on the head for not making the V60’s instrument display a techie junk fest. The screen and information options are nowhere near as hybrid-OTT as they are in the Prius. In fact, you can set the displays up in such a way as to make it nigh on impossible to tell that you are not behind the wheel of a regular, automatic V60.

Less hard to avoid are the myriad safety systems. Some, like the instrument binnacle showing you the current speed limit and the headlamps that track when you turn the steering wheel, are handy. But others, like the red lamp that flashes on top of the dash when you’re within the same postcode area as an obstacle or another car, are more of a distraction. Thankfully the settings menu is a piece of cake to navigate so turning some of the safety systems off is easy.

For the truly inattentive driver the radar-controlled adaptive cruise control, lane departure and blind-spot warnings, all-round proximity sensors and automatic low speed collision avoidance system make the V60 a hard car to bend.

Volvo V60

The load area is big but the battery does take up space

Of course all this hybrid technology doesn’t come cheap. At £43,775 after the British government's plug-in car grant, the V60 Hybrid is a full 10 grand more expensive than the V60 D5 SE Lux but the Hybrid is faster, more economical, has a higher level of standard equipment and has four-wheel drive.

As a simple economic proposition, the V60 Hybrid then makes as much sense as any other car that carries a prestige price tag thanks to its performance, technical ability or badge.

Look at this way: if you decide to spend £43,000 on a V60 Plug-In you can at least use the innovative drivetrain you have paid so dearly for on a daily basis and save fuel. The same can hardly be said of the Audi RS6 Avant, a £77,000 estate that if you use to its full potential will result in you getting up close and personal with PC Plod and spending a considerable amount of time standing next to a petrol pump.

The Reg Verdict

The combination of a powerful and torquey five-cylinder diesel motor and a sizeable battery and electric motor make the V60 Plug-in Hybrid a rather impressive wagon. It’s very fast, impressively economical, can attain significantly higher speeds and ranges under electric power than the Plug-In Prius. It’s also pretty practical and loaded to the gunwales with kit. If you are looking for a performance estate or just the most practical electric car on the market, it has to be worth a test drive. ®