Volvo XC60 PHEV
One quick glance at Volvo’s artfully pretty V60 parked alongside an XC60 is all it takes to highlight the difficulties of giving a true sense of svelte to anything on stilts.
Actually, when it comes to the simultaneous beautification and gentrification of the SUV, Volvo has a pretty good track record; high standards first set in 2002 with designer Peter Horbury’s elegant XC90. So utterly had any notion of workhorse been expunged, at a stroke, from even the loadspace that I when I mentioned using the car to take garden waste to the tip Horbury said: ‘Oh you wouldn’t want to do that; you’d get the carpet dirty.’
Offering most of what’s pleasing about an XC90 in a smaller box, the XC60 may be Volvo’s best-selling car, but it’s hardly its best looking. Inoffensive is probably the word I’d choose. Slightly sharper of suit following a facelift, the only standout flashes of design daring are the hammer and sickle front and rear lights (they really do call the front running lights Thor’s hammer), and the 21” alloys fitted to this T6 All-wheel drive PHEV specimen; the consequences of the latter we’ll come to…
The box may be a trifle bland, but the cabin is a lovely place to inhabit. Volvo does interior design sufficiently differently for all of its models to stand out in a crowd, including the XC60. With the notable exception of the over-knurled treatment of the odd knob, all is tasteful, exceptionally well made and offers a unique visual and tactile quality unmatched by many a rival.
Though most will opt for the usual boiling of chthonic blacks and greys, this is an interior that really shines when presented in lighter, brighter hues. Even the use of matt wood is so skilfully handled as to become acceptable.
When it first surfaced a scant few years back, Volvo’s Sensus, portrait-oriented centre console touch screen was something of a masterclass in how to execute an infotainment system properly. The menu layout was clear, intuitive and could be accessed in its entirety with minimal swiping through less than a handful of main screens, including a home screen which listed other oft-visited ports of call beneath your chosen subject. The company even owned up to the inevitability of screen smearing by bunging a soft cloth in the glove box.
Somehow, though, in succumbing to a new, Google-powered, Android Automotive operating system those crystal waters have become somewhat muddied; working on the if-it-works-fix-it principle, someone has been tinkering to no good effect…
Too much, including climate control, is now buried layer after layer deep within sub menus. True, routine functions such as seat heating, radio controls and navigation can now be programmed using ‘Hey Google’ commands, but the brand’s old navigation set up has been replaced by Google maps and the whole feels nothing like as intuitive to use, or, indeed, good to look at, as its predecessor.
That having been said, the driving position’s first class, seat comfort is unparalleled in this class, ergonomics are outstanding and, though somewhat fussy in its breadth of content options, the 12.3-inch digital driver’s display benefits from improved graphics.
This XC60’s plug-in hybrid all-wheel drive powertrain combines a 250 bhp 2.0 litre, four-cylinder engine driving the front wheels with an 18.8 kWh battery pack and an 86 bhp electric motor powering the rear axle. With total system power of 345 bhp and 435 lb ft of torque on tap (177 lb ft of which is available from zero rpm courtesy of the electric motor) this Volvo’s no slouch, bolting off the line like a horse with a wasp under its tail and never lacking in hot hatch-rivalling overtaking urge.
Despite an electric driving range now quoted as up to 48 miles, claims of over 100mpg seem somewhat risible, unless you potter about plugging the car in when you stop at every traffic light and T-junction. Or, better yet, tow a generator in to which the car is permanently plugged… The benefit of a PHEV has always struck me as having a deal more to do with tax relief than real world driving efficiency.
And you might as well tow that generator because this isn’t a particularly exciting steer; the ability to lock the powertrain in all-wheel drive reinforcing the fact that the four-wheel drive system is more about grip than handing. Never mind though because, sensibly (it’s a family SUV), the XC60’s all about comfort.
Or rather, it might well be had the specimen I drove not been fitted with £1500-worth of 21-Inch alloys. Time was you only saw a wheel this size on a motor show concept car stand. And there it should have stayed… There’s the promise of an underlying fluency to the Volvo’s ride, but that’s utterly undone by the lack of absorbency in tyres with so little side wall height. On standard 18-inch wheels it takes some pretty vile tarmac or a violent bump to upset the body. But, clad for glamour, the XC60’s progress is all too often reminiscent of a frog in a sock.
Chose your specification with care and plug the car in wherever and whenever you can, however, and the XC-60 Recharge will readily justify its slightly hefty price tag.