The Strange Hybrid Volvo V60
25/02/2011
I currently drive a second generation Toyota Prius, so I am sold on the idea of Hybrids, but the more I think about it, I find the new Volvo V60 plug-in Hybrid a bit strange for several reasons:
1. It has two separate drive-trains, one for the diesel engine (front wheels) and one for the electric motors (rear wheels). My Prius drives through the front wheels whether powered by the battery or Petrol and I would think switching between driving wheels would be strange in itself.
2. It has a button to switch between ‘Pure’ (electric), ‘Hybrid’ (electric and diesel) and ‘Power’ (diesel), which means you can just drive it as a diesel car. I have an ‘EV’ button in the Prius to force it to use electric only, but there is no equivalent ‘Power’ button. What this means for the Volvo though is that you could buy one of these, be exempt from the London congestion charge (which my Prius no longer is, though I do not drive in London anyway), and yet just drive it as a diesel if you wish.
3. The carbon dioxide and MPG figures don’t make any sense, which is probably a general issue for plug-in hybrids. The V60 Hybrid will allegedly do 150 MPG with 49 g/km of carbon dioxide. This is with a 2.3 litre diesel engine, which if you are running in ‘Power’ mode may give you less than 50 MPG, rather than 150. The plug-in Prius is stated as having 108.6 MPG with 59 g/km of carbon dioxide, which presumably reflects the shorter electric range of the Prius (15 miles vs 30 miles for the Volvo).
This perhaps just reflects a loophole in the way that particularly the carbon dioxide figures are worked out for plug-in hybrids. Taking this to the extreme, could it be possible to have something like a Range Rover with an enormous engine, but with some electric motor range, with carbon dioxide figures that could allow it to be exempt from road tax and the congestion charge? That would be clearly nonsense. It seems to me that a 2.3 litre diesel engine with 30 miles electric range (Volvo) stated as less carbon dioxide than a 1.8 litre petrol engine with 15 miles electric range (Plug-In Prius) may also be nonsense.
