Over the next 3 months, I drove this beauty religiously in all sorts of real-world environments that included the daily drives to work and the weekend trip to the family that were far beyond the applicable 20-some mile electric range. I drove in Pure mode 99% of the time. I loved how the regenerative braking would kick on as soon as you let off the accelerator, too. This was especially fun as you approached a red light in the distance. Given enough space, the car would get down from 50MPH to 15MPH without touching the brake pedal. The car promoted "green" driving, and to be honest, it was a lot of fun trying to push as much MPGs as was humanly possible!
The real trick is when you have to drive more than 20-or-so miles you're allotted. I quickly mastered how to squeeze out all the little MPGs with my frequent 60+ mile one-way trips to Oswego to visit my family on the weekends. This was a perfect test, as I lived about 7 miles from the 294S onramp and my family lived about 9 miles off the 88W offramp. The first few trips to Oswego, I set the S60 T8 into "Hold" with about 10 miles left on the batteries, so I could harness it when I got off the highway on 88W. Results? The car averaged high 30-MPGs round trip. Not bad, but I could do better. The sweet spot is to use all the range right away, then charge. Using up the last 15-or-so miles on 294S, fully draining the battery, and then setting the S60 into "Charge" yielded the best results. The S60 T8 can go up to 76MPH in Pure mode, by the way. When I got off on 88W using this method, I still had about 8-9 miles that were charged while cruising at 75MPH on the highway. With this method, the round-trip results for ~120 miles driven were 45-47MPG. I should add, I always kept a charger in the trunk and wasn't shy about plugging in at anyone's house.
Wonder what the final outcome was? After 3 months and 3,238 miles of driving, this exact S60 T8 returned an average of 117.6 MPG! Wait, what?? Yes - 117.6MPG. Over the mileage driven, the gas engine only burned 1.75 tanks of fuel. Check out the attached screenshot (what's an article without proof, right?) of my phone using Volvo's On-Call Application. With On-Call, you can track your vehicle's location, mileage, send the navigation a destination, and remote start the engine. Truly a remarkable vehicle and remarkable engineering on Volvo's part - bravo.
Is this something you can drive, too? Well, studies show that we humans living in these glorious United States drive an average of 16 miles on our commute to work. That means you can drive to and from work without burning any gasoline, so long as you keep the battery charged. I was lucky enough to have a spare charger at home, so keeping the battery full wasn't ever an issue. If you don't have the fully built in wall charger at home, the simple socket in your garage will suffice. Recharge times were about 6hrs, but generally happened at night when I was sleeping.
I've driven almost every car in this "small-luxury" sedan segment over my 15 years in the automotive business. What can I deduce? While every other "premium" brand offers a great product, little offer so much standard! Yes, you can buy a nice C-Class, 3-Series, or A4. Unfortunately, you'll quickly find yourself adding options that should've been standard in a luxury car. Sorry to say, but it looks like the Swedes have won this round. Best-In-Class Torque and one of the most gorgeous-looking sedans in the luxury market? You might want to hit the drawing board.
I really enjoyed Volvo's S60 T8. It was a breathe of fresh-air in this "boring" car economy that we've been exposed to. Remember back in the 90s when it was cool to own a German car? Suddenly, it doesn't feel as cool as it used to. I'll take my Swedish Missile, please. Welcome to the new era of Volvo.
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