There’s a lot to say about Volvo’s newest luxury SUV. It looks good from outside. It looks very nice inside and it’s not one of the usual luxury SUV suspects.
But if we’re talking about the T8 “Twin Drive” plug-in hybrid model, the first thing that has to be said is that no one’s going to plug this thing in.
I did, and like the overwhelming majority of you, I don’t have 220-volt power at my house. So, a full charge took about seven hours. Depleting that full charge in hybrid mode took about 15 minutes. Hardly worth the effort.
The details; I left my home near Annapolis for Baltimore, taking a route mixing suburban roads and highway driving. The T8’s 9.3kWh lithium ion battery discharged 95-plus percent of its reserve in about 10 miles of mixed driving. I hadn’t reached the City by that point.
According to Volvo, the T8 is supposed to be able to go about 20 miles in pure EV mode (which, by the way Volvo calls “Pure”). Not in the real world. In Pure mode I saw about nine miles in high 40-degree temperatures. Could Volvo’s math be off? Or is it just a matter of optimal conditions and optimism?
Whatever the case, I forecast that few XC90 T8 owners will use it like a regular non-plug-in hybrid. And if they’re like me, they’ll see about 21.5 mpg rather than EPA’s 25 mpg, 53 MPGe ratings. They may ask themselves whether the roughly $25,000 premium they paid for the plug-in hybrid over the conventional XC90 T6 is warranted. The T8 Inscription I drove stickered at $84,005.
The T8 shares a powerplant with the T6 – Volvo’s 2.0-liter turbo and supercharged four-cylinder engine which puts out 316 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. The four-banger is coupled with Volvo’s Crank-Integrated Starter Generator (C-ISG), a 34kW water-cooled electric motor that adds an additional 84 horsepower/103 pound-feet of torque to the mix. The C-ISG and 2.0 liter send power to the front wheels. A second 65kW electric motor powers the rear wheels, providing up to 177 pound-feet of on-demand torque.
Altogether the T8’s peak power is 400 horsepower and 472 pound-feet of torque, good enough to hustle this heavy hybrid SUV (over 5000 pounds) to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds. You make that 0-60 mph dash in sport mode (there are five drive modes selectable via a wheel on the center console) which maximizes power to the engine and front/rear electric motors. It’s effective but consider this;
Volvo describes the XC90 as all-wheel drive. It is – at times. However, when the battery runs down, which quickly happens, the 2.0 liter is the chief motivator. Since it drives the forward half-shafts, you are essentially at the helm of a front-wheel drive SUV most of the time. Better to think of the XC90 T8 as a front driver with occasional rear wheel augmentation.
With that said there is a lot of space here -15.8 cubic feet of cargo space behind the third row, 41.8 cu.ft behind the second row, and a maximum capacity of 85.7 cu.ft when the second and third rows are folded. The space is attractive, particularly in the T8 Inscription trim which features Nappa leather upholstery, and Nappa upper door panels and dash. I particularly like the Linear Wood interior accents and the crystal shift-by-wire gear selector which is handmade by Scandinavian glassmaker Orrefors. At night, it glows.
While we’re on the subject, the XC90’s eight-speed transmission generally works with appropriate logic and smoothness. But selecting gears via the shift knob and an adjacent “Park” button is yet another example of a manufacturer fooling with the traditional gear selection layout simply to be different. Not better.
Occupying the currently all-important center dash space is Volvo’s Sensus Connect infotainment stack which displays on a nine-inch portrait style screen. The system controls the usual functions (audio source, climate controls, navigation) presented in tile format. Tapping any of these tiles causes the information to expand and fill the screen. Simple black-and-white graphics look good and the logic is fairly intuitive in an iPad-like way. But swiping to control functions remains more distracting than a reasonably-sized button or knob. Phone interfaces have made such control mandatory, even if it is inferior. And yes, Sensus will integrate Apple Car Play or Android Auto.
One other feature of note is the 21-inch Inscription alloy wheels. They’re beautifully machined and complement the XC90’s exterior. In fact, looking at the XC90 in profile recalls Volvo wagons of the past. It’s just taller.
An optional air suspension allows the XC90 T8 to hunker down. Moving through drive modes from Eco to sport progressively lowers ride height to aide aero drag and center of gravity. The off-road setting fills the bags back up, raising the ride height. The suspension controls the T8 Inscription reasonably well but when pushed it gets a bit sloppy. In hybrid mode, the electronic throttle can make for jerky maneuvering in parking lots.
Of course, it is a Volvo and so a range of active and passive safety systems including blind-spot information, 360-degree camera, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist and more is available. So is Park Assist Pilot which will steer the XC90 into or out of a parallel parking space for you. I didn’t try it but the XC90 did.
The system was enabled when I first got behind the wheel. At a traffic light, I pulled up next to a slab-sided work truck. After 30 or so seconds stationary, the Volvo offered to “park” in what it believed was the parallel space next to me. Technology I’m afraid, is often wrong. Which is why in the XC90 and other new cars. I leave much of it unplugged.
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