Volvo XC 90 Recharge (Hybrid) Experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they really inline 4 cylinders?

Pretty wimpy for such a heavy car.

It’s a Volvo SUV not a Charger SRT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they really inline 4 cylinders?

Pretty wimpy for such a heavy car.

It’s a Volvo SUV not a Charger SRT

Any decent SUV has 6 cylinders.

I’m concerned about having enough power on road trips without the electric motors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a an XC90 T8 Recharge Extended Range about 6 weeks ago. So far, we love the car. We get about 40 miles all electric, which is enough for commute/around town. Husband likes driving it because, in sport mode, it is actually quite fast--two rear electric motors + gas engine give it serious kick. With 455 horse power, acceleration is great. (In battery-only mode, how we usually drive it, acceleration is just fine.) For long road trips (we've taken two going far out of range of battery), the engine does fine. The engine alone isn't going to win an award, but it has been plenty of power for us and decent mileage.

We're incredibly happy with it so far. It hit all our desires: Plug-in hybrid; fits 3 kids + 3 adults reasonably comfortably; not a minivan; and has a "fun" factor. We looked broadly, and this was the only car we found that really hit each of those objectives for us.

Happy to answer any questions you might have if I can.

How was acceleration and power on the highway? A heavy SUV with only 2.0L / 4 cylinders / low HP & torque is concerning.

[Anonymous]

I purchased at the Volvo dealer in Bethesda. Had to wait 6 weeks plus, as the first shipment of Extended Ranges was apparently held up.

With battery, acceleration on the highway is amazing. Without battery, acceleration is fine. Won't blow your hair back, but more than sufficient for me. To be sure, I was coming from a 2019 Honda CRV, and the all-gas acceleration of the Volvo is a significant step up from the acceleration of the Honda CRV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I purchased at the Volvo dealer in Bethesda. Had to wait 6 weeks plus, as the first shipment of Extended Ranges was apparently held up.

With battery, acceleration on the highway is amazing. Without battery, acceleration is fine. Won't blow your hair back, but more than sufficient for me. To be sure, I was coming from a 2019 Honda CRV, and the all-gas acceleration of the Volvo is a significant step up from the acceleration of the Honda CRV.

How long did the battery last on that highway IRL?

[Anonymous]

I'm still testing, but limited data as is follows.

In "hybrid" mode, the car basically uses the battery up before it goes to engine, perhaps with a slight bit of engine at higher speeds. It doesn't know how far you are going, and is pushing you to maximize battery usage until it loses charge. In hybrid mode, the car made it almost entirely on battery from our house in Bethesda to north of the Baltimore tunnel--so a bit over 40 miles.

In "power" mode (or perhaps it is called "sport" or something) it goes to gas faster, so it extends the battery range out much longer. When I drove in sport, battery lost all charge at the 95-100 mile mark. So we had pretty good performance throughout that stretch. Then, it reverted to gas only.

I'm obviously still experimenting--just two long trips to exhaust battery range so far.

So far, one thing on my wish list--I don't think it exists, but still confirming--is a mode where you can tell the car about how far you are planning to drive, so it can optimize how much battery vs. gas it uses. That would be amazing if it existed, but I don't think it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm still testing, but limited data as is follows.

In "hybrid" mode, the car basically uses the battery up before it goes to engine, perhaps with a slight bit of engine at higher speeds. It doesn't know how far you are going, and is pushing you to maximize battery usage until it loses charge. In hybrid mode, the car made it almost entirely on battery from our house in Bethesda to north of the Baltimore tunnel--so a bit over 40 miles.

In "power" mode (or perhaps it is called "sport" or something) it goes to gas faster, so it extends the battery range out much longer. When I drove in sport, battery lost all charge at the 95-100 mile mark. So we had pretty good performance throughout that stretch. Then, it reverted to gas only.

I'm obviously still experimenting--just two long trips to exhaust battery range so far.

So far, one thing on my wish list--I don't think it exists, but still confirming--is a mode where you can tell the car about how far you are planning to drive, so it can optimize how much battery vs. gas it uses. That would be amazing if it existed, but I don't think it does.

Thanks. That is helpful.

And how long to charge IRL? Have you ever charged on the road while stopped? Not sure if you even you do that with plug-in hybrids. We have an ICE and an EV so I’m not familiar with plug-in hybrids.

Would prefer an EV Volvo but the c40 and xc40 are too small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm still testing, but limited data as is follows.

In "hybrid" mode, the car basically uses the battery up before it goes to engine, perhaps with a slight bit of engine at higher speeds. It doesn't know how far you are going, and is pushing you to maximize battery usage until it loses charge. In hybrid mode, the car made it almost entirely on battery from our house in Bethesda to north of the Baltimore tunnel--so a bit over 40 miles.

In "power" mode (or perhaps it is called "sport" or something) it goes to gas faster, so it extends the battery range out much longer. When I drove in sport, battery lost all charge at the 95-100 mile mark. So we had pretty good performance throughout that stretch. Then, it reverted to gas only.

I'm obviously still experimenting--just two long trips to exhaust battery range so far.

So far, one thing on my wish list--I don't think it exists, but still confirming--is a mode where you can tell the car about how far you are planning to drive, so it can optimize how much battery vs. gas it uses. That would be amazing if it existed, but I don't think it does.

Thanks. That is helpful.

And how long to charge IRL? Have you ever charged on the road while stopped? Not sure if you even you do that with plug-in hybrids. We have an ICE and an EV so I’m not familiar with plug-in hybrids.

Would prefer an EV Volvo but the c40 and xc40 are too small.

Not the PP, but I'm pretty certain that you can use any Electrify America type of high speed charger if you're on the road.

Is anyone actually buying these cars, or just leasing? I"m not sure I want to buy a car with technology that will likely be very outdated in a few years.

[Anonymous]

That is a good point about leasing. We usually buy and hold onto our cars for a long time. But the technology will be changing rapidly. Maybe we should lease this next one.

[Anonymous]

Recent XC90 T8 purchaser back...

Re charging, Volvo gives you an adapter that lugs into both standard 120v normal wall outlet, and a 230v dryer-style outlet. For first we weeks, we were using 120v only, and charge from empty batter would take about 10-12 hours--truly overnight. Once we got an electrician to install the 230v plug (at least that is what I think it is), we dropped down to charge times of about 5 hours. It can also do type 3 faster charging--and presumably we could install that at our house if we wanted--but 5 hours for a full charge is fast enough based on how we use it.

Re power/acceleration, if you are looking for the performance of a Tesla Model X Plaid--or any sports car--you aren't going to find it here. But among nice 3 row SUVs (other than perhaps X), the XC90 T8 Extended Range seems to have the best acceleration out of any of the competitor 3 rows. When you are without battery, it is fine, but not winning any awards.

So if what performance you get at like miles 100-300 is very, very important to you, this may not be the car. But if in standard driving you are going 25-75 miles, and will generally have battery charge, this is an excellent car. For our around-town use in the city, it's 100% electric and no gas use at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recent XC90 T8 purchaser back...

Re charging, Volvo gives you an adapter that lugs into both standard 120v normal wall outlet, and a 230v dryer-style outlet. For first we weeks, we were using 120v only, and charge from empty batter would take about 10-12 hours--truly overnight. Once we got an electrician to install the 230v plug (at least that is what I think it is), we dropped down to charge times of about 5 hours. It can also do type 3 faster charging--and presumably we could install that at our house if we wanted--but 5 hours for a full charge is fast enough based on how we use it.

Re power/acceleration, if you are looking for the performance of a Tesla Model X Plaid--or any sports car--you aren't going to find it here. But among nice 3 row SUVs (other than perhaps X), the XC90 T8 Extended Range seems to have the best acceleration out of any of the competitor 3 rows. When you are without battery, it is fine, but not winning any awards.

So if what performance you get at like miles 100-300 is very, very important to you, this may not be the car. But if in standard driving you are going 25-75 miles, and will generally have battery charge, this is an excellent car. For our around-town use in the city, it's 100% electric and no gas use at all.

Thanks. Helpful again.

This would be a daily driver plus a frequent road trip car. So both scenarios are important.

We don’t need Plaid performance but don’t want to be anemic on the highway either. Coming from a V6 peppy SUV.

Seems like the perfect option isn’t here - don’t want model X. Maybe we will wait another year or two to see what comes out in the next batch of eSUVs.

Maybe they will do an all-electric xc90. That would be perfect.

[Anonymous]

Can you turn off the battery? Wondering if I can get a sense of non-battery performance on a test drive.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can put it in "battery hold" mode and it goes to just gas. Put it in power mode and battery hold, and you'll see what it can do.

I confess that the car isn't perfect. But we needed to get into a 6-seater now, and for what we wanted (including hybrid) it was the "most perfect" option for us on the market . I fully anticipate that in 3 or 4 years, if not sooner, there will be something better. We couldn't wait.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your help. I’ll test drive before making final decision. I like almost everything else about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I test drove the 2021 not the 2022 and was not impressed. It felt weak and underpowered on the freeway, so much so that it felt a little unsafe for the size. I’ve heard the 2022 is much better though. Also, the range of the 2021 was weak, something like 17 miles which is useless.

I ended up getting the BMW X5 45e which I love. It feels like a much better car.

both SUVs have the same 0-60 mph (96 km/h) time of 5.3 seconds