Volvo Plug-in Hybrid subjective experience after 3 years Daily Driving

Technology Electrified Vehicles
1

i have technical analysis of Volvo’s system against the alternatives in a different thread:

but here i just want to focus on how it FEELS to drive the Volvo.

more specifically how the feeling changes when the battery charge runs out …

Volvo calls the drivetrain “T8” where “T” stands for Turbo and “8” stands for V8 which means it’s a turbo based system that is intended to deliver performance of an old school V8.

having previously had a naturally aspirated V8 BMW this Volvo certainly matches the 0-60 time of that BMW so the marketing there is not entirely bullshit, but there are caveats …

the BMW didn’t need a fully charged battery ( it didn’t have a hybrid battery ) to feel like a V8 but the Volvo does …

setting off with a fully charged battery in the Volvo feels much like in the BMW - athletic and effortless - most of the time the engine is off and when it’s on it never breaks a sweat ( except when it’s heating up the catalytic converter when it first starts up ) because the battery and electric motor are doing most of the heavy lifting and the 4-cylinder only needs to fill in the balance of power …

so for example the total system power is 400 hp out of which 315 is the engine and 85 is the electric motor … if you ask the car for 120 horsepower it will take 80 from the motor and 40 from the engine. you can’t feel the electric motor work and 40 hp from a 4 cylinder is not much effort so the car gives you that 120 hp you asked for effortlessly just like a V8 would …

but this changes DRASTICALLY once the battery runs out after 20 miles or so … because now not only does the engine have to do all of the lifting on its own it also has to haul around the 600 lbs or so of hybrid componentry that is now dead weight … and even worse than that it has to simultaneously charge the battery !

so now when you ask for that 120 hp you have 3 out of 4 cylinders moving the car and the 4th cylinder is working just to charge the battery and to haul the hybrid system around … so the same system that felt like a V8 now suddenly feels like a 3 cylinder …

mind you the actual performance doesn’t actually drop that much with battery low. when you floor it the car still taps into reserve in the battery and you still get a solid launch that you paid for … but then it goes into a mode where it is charging the battery and it sounds exactly like what it is - like you have a generator running under a hood.

so there will be times when your battery is low when you’re crawling at 5 mph or even stopped when the engine will be on and it won’t just be idling - it will be running as a generator with noticeable noise and vibration.

i had the same thing in the Camry hybrid, but it’s worse in the Volvo because the Camry had a 2.5 liter engine in 3,500 lbs car whereas Volvo has 2.0 liter in 4,400 lbs car … and also the Camry had an e-CVT transmission which means engine RPM isn’t tied to your speed or gears so when it runs as a generator it is less noticeable because it stays at a constant RPM and in general the Camry wasn’t a quiet car to begin with so you were used to the noise whereas the Volvo is trying to be a luxury car but when the engine goes into generator mode it just feels like you’re driving a U-Haul truck suddenly …

so really what went wrong is when Volvo designed this car they leaned too heavily on the electric side of things treating electric power as if it’s always there. they did it because they had no choice - they only had budget to develop a single engine - they don’t have any 6 cylinder engines in their portfolio that they could have used. they PERFORMANCE is still there when you floor the pedal and battery reserve is used but the FEELING under normal driving isn’t.

frankly the car feels EMBARRASSING when the battery is depleted. it sounds like it’s constantly struggling even driving at normal speeds. that’s because people will assume it’s using power to move forward when it’s actually using power to charge the battery so that a reserve is available if you were to floor it. if it wasn’t charging the battery it would get bricked.

in order to provide the bare minimum power to coast in EV mode the system has to go into charge whenever the engine is on, and that feels and sounds terrible.

i understand Brake Specific Fuel Consumption

and how it’s the reason why they have to run it this way but that doesn’t make it feel any worse.

they need to keep engine off most of the time then when it’s on they need to run it in the optimum efficiency zone which happens to be a zone that sounds like the engine is dying.

this is the price of efficiency but i’m not sure i’m willing to pay that price.

the Panamera is FAR less efficient than Volvo ( 22 mpg vs 30 mpg once battery is depleted ) and part of that reason is that it’s a V6 but i am starting to think maybe the other part of the reason is that Volvo sacrificed feeling to get better MPG whereas Porsche perhaps sacrificed MPG to optimize the feeling …

if you simply operate the generator in a different area of BSFC map you can have it run more smoothly at the expense of worse fuel consumption …

this is why i need to test drive the Panamera …

2

of course the feeling of a fully electric vehicle cannot be beat. they are just perfect all the time.

except when you run out of battery and have to call a tow truck.

well actually they go into limp mode before that. when i was test driving E-Trons half of them went into limp mode because they didn’t have enough charge.

first you see the dash showing you only have 50% power available and then it limits you to some Turtle top speed.

this is clever because you don’t want to suddenly just stop in the left lane. you want to at least get some hints to get off the highway so you can stop on a quieter road where you can get put on a tow truck without cars slamming into you at 80 mph.

3

i also want to add that i’m not sure if it started doing this recently or was always this way but there is some kind of hesitation in the way the Volvo system works. it’s hard to pin down because it depends on some many factors like weather, state of charge, traction, engine and battery temperature and so on …

but the behavior of the system can be somewhat erratic …

basically on a physics level ( the way i analyze things ) the system works. but on a SOFTWARE level it is not properly programmed. it’s like a high IQ Vegan Communist or something - the hardware is there but the software is dogshit.

SAVAGEGEESE is one of the very few car reviewers who has living brain cells and he has mentioned this about the Volvo and i am noticing it more now …

i previously just chalked it up to the system doing its thing but now i realize that probably systems in other cars like BMW and Porsche aren’t acting this way despite also being plug-in hybrids …

so this behavior isn’t inherent to the complexity of plug in hybrids but to the fact that Volvo bit off more than they can chew with this setup - the system with a supercharger, turbocharger, an engine and two electric motors proved too much for Volvo to program so that it behaves in a way that isn’t psychotic …

when i was leasing the car i didn’t really care - but now that i’m preparing to buy it out suddenly i’m worried - is it SUPPOSED to be acting this way ? or is there some kind of engine or transmission issue ?

i will also note the infotainment system is DOGSHIT as well, so clearly Volvo isn’t very good at writing code. for the new models they have dumped their worthless GPS and put in Google Maps instead, and supposedly the drivetrain itself is now programmed better as well but honestly when i was getting the car it was something i had failed to consider …

i analyzed TO DEATH the mechanical and electrical aspects of the system and didn’t consider the fact that it could all be ruined by inept software that controls it all.

basically you don’t really drive the Volvo - it drives you. it decides what engine it will use when and in what mode and it sometimes makes no sense and you just have to accept it. this is why most car reviewers passed this car by - because they judged the car by driving it, whereas i judged it by looking at diagrams of how it is supposed to work, as well as by measurement data on acceleration, range, economy etc.

but all that autistic stuff doesn’t add up to a cohesive driving experience because Volvo’s software is basically broken.

Volvo put in a supercharger to eliminate turbo lag but instead the lag in the system comes from the software that basically stutters.

if you feather the throttle with full charge - everything is fine - you’re in EV mode. if you FLOOR the pedal with empty battery everything is also fine, you just get full engine power. but if you’re anywhere in between all bets are off - the car is seemingly trying to always surprise you with what it is going to do, when and how …

SAVAGEGEESE says the new Volvo is better, since they dropped the supercharger and reworked the software … but i’m not replacing this Volvo with another one … and this one is psychotic.

as i said i never cared when it was leased but buying out a car that acts this way is scary because there is no way to know it’s just software and not some hardware issue …

i will still have the warranty but they may say this is normal and then when you try to sell it nobody will buy it because it acts this way …