Volvo XC60 review: Reasonable range makes PHEV a winner

The Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge is a car for life in that it is now, and will be in the future, an excellent and practical family car and a very decent driving proposition
Volvo XC60 review: Reasonable range makes PHEV a winner

The Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge is a dinger; basically a slightly smaller version of the XC90 without the third row of seats and slightly less interior room.

Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge

Rating

★★★★☆

Price

€59,250 - €65,250 as tested

Engine

2ltr turbocharged petrol engine combined with an electric motor giving 350bhp

PHEV Range

77 km of electric motoring

The Spec

spectacular in pretty much every regard

Verdict

a real competitor for the German premium brands

It’s amazing the way ‘spin’ can be used to cloud people’s judgement on any matter of things – including motoring.

Why just last week I came across a Mercedes press release which praised one of its Plug-In Hybrid electrics as being “locally emission-free.” 

This might suggest to an innocent abroad that this particular car somehow and miraculously becomes emission-free when you drive it “locally,” but it does not indicate what happens when you drive it anywhere other than that. It also indicates, at least to someone who knows no better, that emission-free driving can somehow be magically coaxed out of thin air.

That you have to have the car fully charged – in as much as it can be, because some PHEVs differ wildly from others not alone in how far you can travel on electric power but how long it takes to top the battery up – and not simply rely on the petrol or diesel engine to keep you purring along, is one factor.

Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge
Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge

The other thing to consider is that some PHEVs will only give you a tiny “local” range – in some cases as little as 30km, while others will give you somewhat more, up to nearly 80km. This means you have to plan everything you do in order to maximise your emission-free motoring and if you don’t do so then you’ll simply be lugging around hundreds of kilos of redundant electrical capability unnecessarily.

So, you see, the concept of “locally emission-free” motoring is something of a tenuous one and, indeed, the whole attraction of PHEV motoring is something that’s becoming a lot less attractive by the day, especially as fiscal administrators worldwide are now growing cold on the idea of reduced taxes on these vehicles.

The original idea behind making PHEVs tax-friendly was that they were an avenue for many people to completely all-electric motoring and as such should be supported wholeheartedly. The reality, though, quickly became clear in that people were benefitting from the taxation benefits without actually using the emission-free element of the PHEV they’d chosen.

Last week, the UK announced that it was ending its plug-in car grant they have followed many other countries in doing so, including ourselves and for many car companies, this is a big blow because they have invested heavily in the technology and now the products they’ve come up with are a lot less attractive to the buying public.

The interior surfaces of the Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge are either leather-covered or with very tasteful plastics, so the whole ambience is very ‘premium’.
The interior surfaces of the Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge are either leather-covered or with very tasteful plastics, so the whole ambience is very ‘premium’.

But, as we here at Examiner Motoring have been pointing out in recent times, grants or not, there is still a glimmer of hope for the PHEV concept, provided people actually use the cars in the way they are intended. Obviously, those machines which only provide an all-electric range of no more than 35/40 km are of limited value.

But, those which offer 70-80km of the all-electric range are a different prospect altogether because what they offer in terms of electric motoring is actually very worthwhile.

This week we drive one of them – the Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge – and it very definitely fits into the ‘useful’ category with a quoted range of 77 km of electric motoring.

For most people faced with a daily commute this means if you have the car fully charged when you leave home, you will probably make it back home again on electricity only, even if you have to tackle a little bit of motorway or dual carriageway. If you can charge at work, you may never have to do the commute without having to resort to using the two-litre turbocharged petrol engine with which the test car was fitted.

Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge
Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge

Somewhat astonishingly the combination of the electric motor and the battery as well as the engine provides a total system output of 350bhp, giving you a top speed of 180 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of 5.7 seconds. As usual with PHEVs, the claimed fuel consumption is ridiculous at 1.3 l/100km (215 mpg), but the reality is a little starker.

If you were to get anywhere around the 5.4 l/100 km mark (51 mpg) you would be doing very well and slapping yourself heartily across the back. But then if you do follow the instructions with regard to the proper use of the car and its’ electric capacity, you might even give yourself a, erm, shock.

With regard to the car and its daily use, the XC60 is, as we know, a dinger. Basically a slightly smaller version of the XC90 without the third row of seats and slightly less interior room, it is a wonderfully practical tool.

On the downside, the boot is marginally smaller because of the electric installations than is the case in the ICE version and because the battery for the plug-in system is housed in what was the transmission tunnel and that makes the middle seat in the rear only comfortable for a smaller person.

Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge
Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge

Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge
Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge

Worth mentioning is the ‘driftwood’ trim which is lovely to look at and touch on the dash and the centre console, while the rest of the interior surfaces are either leather-covered or with very tasteful plastics, so the whole ambience is very ‘premium.’ The seating too – covered in Nappa leather on the tester – are fantastic and among the most supportive in the business.

One thing I didn’t really like was the Google-based operating system which didn’t really suit iPhone users. Obviously, the test car is just that and will have a lot of different users and the car’s internal SIM card didn’t really like this, forcing you to go to all sorts of lengths to get stuff like maps and so forth. 

I’m sure with a single-family on board, the situation would be much better, but it was not as easy to navigate as the previous system.

Indeed the whole infotainment system on this car used to be at the head of the class, but it now looks dull and boring and isn’t a patch on what’s on offer from other premium manufacturers.

Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge
Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge

That said, the list of standard kit is pretty astonishing and standard kit from entry-level includes stuff such as 18” alloys (19” on the tester), adaptive cruise control, eight-speed auto ‘box, speed-sensitive steering, 12.3” digital instrumentation screen and a rake of safety kit, including the autonomous barking system which, I have to say, was a little too autonomous for my liking.

On the road, the car is well-balanced and well-mannered with few obvious flaws, although I did get the feeling that on the 19” wheels it was a little too nervy in the handling department and the ride that fraction too edgy.

Such sensations are fingertip or seat-of-your-pants feelings and while the car was top drawer on long motorway drives or on really smooth surfaces, throw an Irish backroad into the mix and things were not quite as impressive, but not quite awful either.

This is a very confident alternative to what’s on offer in the Premium SUV segment and while the PHEV element might not be everyone’s cup of tea, once you get used to what you’re supposed to do and what you have to do to make it work properly, it is an eminently pleasing machine to live with.

Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge
Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge

In many respects for many people, the XC60 is a car for life in that it is now and will be in the future an excellent and practical family car and a very decent driving proposition as well. It’s no perfect and there are things you like to see changed, or if not changed, modified.

All told though, it is a very complete bus indeed.

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