► Month 11, time to say goodbye to the Volvo
► Safety features are neat touches in the hybrid
► Boot space limited for a Volvo wagon
When he mused that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Aristotle probably wasn’t thinking about Volvo’s V60 D6 R-Design Lux. But it’s an apposite philosophy for assessing our 13,853 miles in the world’s first diesel hybrid, one packed with tech and costing a princely sum: £51,675 before options (and before taking off its £5k green car subsidy).
Its parts are dominated by a fiendishly complex plug-in hybrid drivetrain, enabling electric rear-drive, five-cylinder diesel front-drive, or both for all-wheel drive. Volvo lauds electrification’s performance (as well as ecological) benefits, and boosting 325lb ft of diesel grunt with a 148lb ft electric motor makes for a punchy mid-range. But the two-tonne weight, supersized by 300kg of batteries, means it’s not as spritely as 6.1sec 0-62mph suggests.
More impressive is the sophisticated integration of the power sources. In Hybrid mode, an urban journey starts with pure electric, diesel powers you up a motorway slip road, then EV resumes to maintain a quiet cruise. Kick down and you unleash the diesel-electric full monty. At times you feel a tug on the front wheels like driveline shunt, as the engine takes over from e-drive, but mostly it’s seamless. Volvo has given the driver impressive control too, with a Pure button for EV mode, AWD to spin both axles, and a Save button which stores your current level of charge (or siphons engine power if the batteries need a top-up). These buttons provide superior interactivity to, say, Porsche’s Panamera e-Hybrid, and Volvo’s trip computer feedback is brilliant.
Ah, mpg! The discredited European cycle, which the D6 would have tackled fully charged with a 31-mile EV range, recorded 148.7mpg. My best, on a motorway run after a six-hour charge, was 61.2mpg; overall we averaged 44.9mpg. The V60’s finest hour was a 15-mile zero-emissions lap of London’s Congestion Charge zone. You can hear a faint sci-fi whine at urban speeds; on the motorway the V60 is pretty refined, but tyre noise and wind whistle prevent Rolls-Royce rhapsodies of silence. Meaningful electric running, at speeds and for distances Toyota’s hybrids can’t currently match, engenders a proper feelgood factor.
Sadly it’s nothing but a feelbad factor when it comes to the V60’s dynamic qualities. The steering is a pig: you need a rugby forward’s strength to manhandle it at low speeds (though it can be inconsistently light in corners), and when you do wrestle it off centre, it has a furious determination to ping back to 12 o’clock. It makes the D6 feel unresponsive and understeery.
Drive hard, and you can feel the heavy rear batteries having a pendulous effect on chassis balance, though the front wheels hang on tenaciously. The ride is stiff, with crests and potholes jarring. No problems with the progressive-feeling brakes, unlike the snatchy response of some regenerative hybrid systems.
Option-wise, the £1900 Driver Support pack bundled together a mixed bag of safety kit. Active Beam was brilliant (ahem): simply leave high beam on, and be amazed as the mid-section of light drops out to avoid dazzling an oncoming driver, leaving a surrounding aura of brightness. Collision advoidance was clueless, often identifying parked cars or non-existent objects as hazards. But ‘city safe’ once activated the brakes just before I did, believing we were closing too fast on queuing traffic.
Reliability was mixed too: the front right brake screeched for a few days, though nothing was found to be grating, and the oil sensors flagged up an errant warning after the £288 first service. We also had a blowout, with the 18-inch Bridgestone costing £198 to replace, and the 12v battery had to be changed under warranty. In its last few days here, the hybrid system stopped taking any charge.
Ultimately these niggles, and the off-putting handling, make the V60 impossible to recommend. Shame, as its electric range makes it ideal for cities, while its diesel back-up eliminates an EV’s compromises. Splendid drivetrain, shame about the rest of it. Or as Aristotle would have more elegantly summarised: the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
Logbook Volvo V60 D6
Engine: 2400cc diesel 5-cyl, 212bhp and 325lb ft + rear electric motor, 69bhp and 148lb ft
Gearbox: 6-speed auto, variable all-wheel drive
Stats: 6.1sec 0-62mph, 143mph, 48g/km
Price: £51,675
As tested: £53,150
Miles this month: 742
Total miles: 17,412
Our MPG overall: 44.9 Official MPG: 148.7
Fuel cost overall: £1742.83
Extra costs overall: £485.69 (tyre and service)
From the driving seat
– Steering that fights your every input
+Versatile hybrid system that offers the driver great control
– Not much space for a Volvo wagon, especially in boot
+ Auto-braking and Active Beam neat safety features
Count the cost
Cost new: £58,150 (including £6475 of options, before £5k subsidy)
Dealer sale price: £32,590
Private sale price: £31,275
Part-exchange price: £29,080
Cost per mile: 10.0p
Cost per mile including depreciation: £1.79
