Volvo V 60 plug in diesel hybrid
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 10:34AM 
A couple of weeks ago I followed a crowd of European journalists down long corridors in a modern building outside Gothenburg, Sweden. A special door was opened with difficulty, the man who was leading us couldn’t open it, his key card didn’t have clearance. A smartly dressed woman stepped forward, swiped her card and “chung,” the door opened.
What you might have expected to see inside was an alien space craft floating mid air, powered only by light, using a technology far in advance of our own. Sorry, slipped off there a moment.
There was a mysterious object under a sheet, and when this was ceremoniously removed, what I saw was ..... a Volvo estate car.
Had I come all this way to see a Volvo estate car! Not even a floating one? I’d seen loads of these sensible, safe, well made, expensive cars on the roads in the UK for years.
A number of proud Volvo workers stood around smiling at us. This, we were told, was the Volvo V60 plug in diesel hybrid electric car. We were given a talk about the colour scheme, the detail of the interior, the slightly reduced space in the rear.
Then I lay down on the floor and looked underneath.
Ahh, there we are, something a bit different about the underneath part.
A mere 12 years after Toyota unveiled the Prius, a mere 15 years after Honda launched the Honda Insight, Volvo have launched a hybrid car. I was feeling a little bit cynical as you can possibly tell. But then I started to get interested.
They have taken their time, tested stuff out, made sure it worked really really well. They have seen what others have done and taken it further.
Here’s some guidance for real world usage of the Hybrid Toyota Prius.
You don’t need to plug it in.
It produces 89 grams of Co2 per kilometer, massively lower than any other car of the same size.
It gets between 65 and 80 mpg depending on how you drive it.
Here’s what Volvo have done with the V 60
You can plug it in, but you don’t have to.
If you do, the first thirty miles can be pure electric.
It is a diesel hybrid, and it produces 50 grams of Co2 per kilometer, the lowest emissions of any internal combustion powered car of any size ever made.
It gets 124 mpg in hybrid mode. Yes, one hundred and twenty four miles to the bloody gallon.
If you stick in hybrid mode, you have a full tank and a fully charged battery, you can drive 745 miles without stopping. That will get you to Scotland, the never ending demand from petrol heads commenting about battery powered cars. That will also give you some kind of triple hernia because even at a constant 70 miles an hour that’s over 10 hours driving, so you will be literally busting for a pee.
The car is very swish and sophisticated with all the usual Volvo safety stuff, but it has some extra buttons on the centre console. It is set to hybrid drive as the default, this means the car uses a combination of the 52 kilowatt AC motor powered by a 12 kilowatt hour battery driving the rear wheels and a 2.4 liter Diesel engine driving the front.
You can, if the battery is charged enough, press the hybrid button again to give you electric only drive, you can go up to 62 mph using this, and Volvo claim the batteries will take you up to 30 miles depending on conditions and driving style.
You can also press the power button and probably do tail drifts across a disused airfield as obviously this is very important.
I was very impressed, I didn’t get to drive it because it’s all been top secret until today, it’s being officially launched at the Geneva motor show next week.
So, what about the normal criticisms and bigotry regarding hybrid vehicles. The batteries are much worse than a normal car, the mining of the materials does more damage than 10 million dirty diesels.
I can barely be bothered to respond, but here’s a few pertinent facts as opposed to utterly unfounded allegations.
The hybrid that is the most common and has done the most real world driving is obviously the Prius.
There are over 600 Prius Taxi’s worldwide that have travelled over 300,000 miles each on the original battery pack and tests have show that the batteries are around 85% as effective as they were when new.
The total savings in fuel use brought about by the existence of 1.4 million Prius cars worldwide has been calculated to be around $1.2 billion dollars. That’s $1.2 billion dollars saved by all those ‘stupid, smug, tree hugging ‘green’ do-gooders who drive hateful hybrids.’
The battery packs of both the Prius and without doubt the Volvo V60 will last the lifetime of the car and are 99% recyclable, the elements within the batteries are worth money, no one is going to chuck them into landfill.
The arrant nonsense that producing batteries is worse for the environment than producing a standard ICE car has been proved beyond all shadow of doubt. Over the lifetime of the Volvo and the Prius, the massive reduction in fuel use has an impact that outweighs any extra materials used to construct it by a factor of 10.
100,000 miles in a Volvo V60 will use about 806 gallons. In a standard Volvo V 60, a fair comparison I think, will use around 2875 gallons. Over 2,000 gallons more!
I rest my smug, tofu filled rattan case.
Reader Comments (17)
Sounds very impressive... any sign of pricing?
Great piece! Thank for another entertaining article. I am wondering how long it will take until the first reader is pointing out how dirty the electricity is that is used to charge the battery ;-) And I am already looking forward to read your answer Robert!
Ok, so you can drive from London to Scotland without stopping for fuel. What would the fuel economy on that trip be? 124MPG? I doubt it!
124 MPG is only possible under certain conditions. I would like to know Wh/km consumtion in EV-Mode and MPG in in ICE mode. This is the only way I can determine fuel consumption for my specific usage.
I agree that this car is a step in the right direction, but it's a compromise. It's unnecessarily complex as it has 2 engines and 2 energy containers.
I can understand there is a market for a car like this, but I would prefer an all out attempt to make a revolutionary EV by car makers like Volvo instead of a conversion kit car like the electric C30.
Interesting review. Rather too Top Gear obsessed for me though which reveals a problem I think. There are people out here who enjoy Top Gear but who can also make up their own minds on what is, or is not, a good car. By always seeming like you have to react to the latest Top Gear inanity you do yourself no favours. Just my humble opinion. Further, I don't see what is wrong with pointing out that virtually no car power source is pollution-free or that dragging stuff around the world to make a car has it's own consequences. By all means compare. Just don't mislead (which is an accusation made of anti-EVers).
In 20 years we will probably all drive cars like this (well, probably 10 times better than this actually).
Great news Robert, have been following your posts and wondered what the hush-hush stuff was you were doing in Sweden.
My only complaint, they need a bigger battery, prefer it to have same range or better being it's a bigger form factor car as the Chevy Volt, and being Volvo of course it will be safe, very safe.
For my needs though 30miles AER if I used my car to commute I would never use the fuel if it was just commuting.
Keep up the great work! Don't let those mindless TG hosts and their followers get to you, yes I enjoy the show as well but unlike when I first started watching it's pure entertainment now not a fact to be seen.
re: Ad van der Meer's comment on the MPG figure - no official fuel economy figure quoted by manufacturers is ever achievable in "real life". They are not meant to be. They are achieved under lab conditions and are intended to be for comparison purposes, so we can contrast one vehicle with another, travelling in the same, perfect set of conditions. Taking that into account, 124MPG sounds very impressive indeed.
I'm very interested in the diesel-electric hybrid concept, as I presume it will have masses of torque, Many people use vehicles for more than just travelling from A to B - anyone towing a caravan, boat or other heavy trailer - and there are more than a million regular tow-car users in the UK - will know that torque is far more important for easy driving than sheer engine "grunt" - and diesels and electric motors have far more torque than petrol engines.
However, many car manufacturers are deliberately "weakening" their electric vehicles in an effort to save weight, and we're told that transmissions and suspension components may not be up to the added demands of towing.
So, how does the Volvo figure in this regard? Is it suitable for use as a tow car?
@Sam Tana
The lab conditions for ICE cars is comparible as the is an agreed standard.
For PHEV there is no such standard, so it's important to know how Volvo has come to 124 MPG. Did they use the ECE cycle or did they use their own mix? I haven't seen any article or press release in which Volvo has stated a norm or methodology on how this test was done.
Remember the 230MPG Chevy Volt?
@Ad van der Meer
That is a good point. I raised the question when we had the V60 presentation two weeks ago. They said there is a special NEDC procedure for hybrid cars. I will try to find about this.
pukkatronic
I take your point but I am confused. I cannot see how this review is Top Gear obsessed. I don't mention the show in any way. I have become aware of a hair trigger reaction when it comes to any mention of Top Gear, not mine I hasten to add, but deep paranoia and vitriol from the shows many fanatic followers. I merely point out the vapid nonsense about hybrid and electric vehicles they and many other auto journalists spout without thought. At present there is no alternative mouthpiece with the reach and impact of TG and sadly millions upon millions of viewers take their gags as gospel. I cannot tell you the amount of times I've heard some thrown away remark from Top Gear repeated to me as if it were verifiable scientific fact. My occasional and very timid criticism of the show is a paltry attempt at trying to bring some balance to the argument.
That said, I would rather not refer to them even super-obliquely and will endeavour to utterly ignore the lies, sponsored lies and actual, measurable harm their neo-conservative worldview is having on us. :-)
I don't think you can do effective tail slides in a front wheel drive car. I find this patent lack of factual reporting quite alarming.
If this car is less than 28000 I'm having one. Suspect it will be somewhere between 30 and 35 though.
So is it 89 or 50 g/km?
...it will also get you _around_ Scotland. Out in the countryside, distances are still a bit much for the current crop of urban-focussed EVs... well, without more charging points around the place.
But this is all very exciting and I kind of want one. That 30 mile EV range is 10 more than my drive to work...
If you look at the AutoExpress review (sorry to mention a rival review but I did get it from your Twitter feed Robert) at http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/264535/volvo_v60_diesel_plugin_hybrid.html, it seems that the diesel drives the front wheels and the electric motor drives the rear wheels. Four wheel drive of sorts, but that seems a bit strange to me. How will the handling change when it switches effectively from front to rear wheel drive?
I'll stick to my hateful hybrid Prius for the moment.
If you look at the Volvo website you'll find that the base spec V60 D5 is almost £28000. So, considering this has a larger battery pack than an iMiev I doubt you'll see it on the road for less than £35000.
If I owned one and ran it until the battery was exhausted and the tank was empty, then put one gallon of fuel in would I get 124 mpg? If so, why bother plugging it in?
There are so many absurd facts and figures being given by to pro oil and pro EV lobbies that I'm finding the old 'fiddle' factor to be especially useful now. In basic terms if somebody quotes a figure in their favour apply a multiplier or divisor of 0.62 to reduce the benefit to them. Correspondingly, if they quote a figure which looks bad for their opposition then apply the same factor but to the benefit of the other party.
So... In plain old mpg that puts the V60 at 77mpg. I think that's reasonable given the weight of the V60 and figures expected from the current model Prius.
Now, we get to the bit which actually puts me off this vehicle.
It has a battery pack larger than that in an iMiev yet, on electric power only, it's quoted to give about a 30 mile range. I may be wrong (correct me if I am) but I have a recollection that there's approx 10KWh available energy per gallon of diesel. which makes the batteries equivalent to 1.8 gallons of fuel. 30 miles on 1.8 gallons? Ouch!
Taking my most pessimistic numbers 77+30 miles on 2.8 gallons comes out at 38 mpg.
More optimistically 124 miles on 2.8 gallons is 44mpg.
Now this is where I admit that the last mpg figures above are quite absurd. But they are the sort of thing the Pro oil lobby might come up with. But... apply the universal fiddle factor and you come to something much more reasonable ie 71mpg.
True, that's not in terms of the fuel you put in the tank but I think it's a reasonable estimate of the contributions made by fuel tank and electricity plug.
For my own part... There's rarely more than myself in the vehicle so I'm about to order a Fiat Twinair which according to Toyota's own figures has significantly less environmental impact than it's own Prius. The £22000 I'm saving over not getting the V60 I'll spend on solar panels.
Great review! I love hybrid cars!
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I have heard a lot of critiques to this kind of cars. Normally hybrids have very futurist and elegant designs but its enginee is a crap, what you say, is true or not?
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Great review! I love hybrid cars! They are the wave of the future!