MY22 XC90 18kWh Review

[tronicx83]

The wife and I picked up our XC90 Inscription Expression T8 at the beginning of January - its got the new 18kWh/145hp electric powertrain, so I thought I'd drop my thoughts here as an early review.

STATS:

• ODO - 345m
• 96% Electric and 4% Fuel usage
• 188mpg average fuel consumption in the app

Powertrain - Love it.. so fricken smooth. 90% of our journeys are local school runs, park-runs and shopping runs, so we can do this 100% electric.
No hesitations pulling off, plenty of power there when you need it (like at a roundabout or busy juntion) and it's just a delight to drive in general.

Powertrain economy - Fine. I drove 30-miles to work this morning, 38-mins driving of which 25 mins and 20 miles were on motorways doing ~70mph - all on electric with the exception of 30seconds where I needed to overtake and then it dropped back to electric again. (720mpg according to the journal!)

In-Car Entertainment - is okay. CarPlay is great, it's a shame its wired only and such a small part of the screen. Also, it took me a while to get DAB to be the default radio setting (still not sure how I managed it) rather than FM.

Other love points - things we like

• Drive comfort - it's definitely less crashy than our previous Disco Sport
• Size - it fits everything, kids, adults, kids crap - it swallows it all and asks for more
• Pre-conditioning - gotta love a warm cabin, seat and steering wheel when you set off in the freezing cold (Oh, FYI - this runs off the house charger while plugged in)

Negatives - things I don't like, or have tripped us up:

• Care Key - What is this? I mean, I know what it is, but it's a joke of an idea. Dealer said they can convert it to a standard key so we can use it with a Driver Profile, but I expect that'll come with a cost.
• Car wouldn't start - yesterday the wife loaded the kids and all into the car and it just wouldn't start. "Turn Start knob to start" - it kept repeating. Cue a lot of cursing from the wife. I managed to get it started, half hour later after a bit of back-and-forth with the non-the-wiser dealership. VOC is useless for actually troubleshooting an issue it turns out.
• Manual kids locks - ugh. Electronic kids locking was a basic function on the Disco Sport, and in the XC90 it's a paid add-on. So I have to get this thing they call a key and stick it in a hole in the door... what is this, the 90's?

[Dohnut]

Glad to hear you are enjoying your car and let’s hope the whole not starting thing was just a one-off glitch.

For the un-initiated what is Care Key?

[Lozzingers]

That 18.8Kwh and bigger hp sounds like the dream - lucky you!
With our MY22 T8, I've had similar that the car keeps saying turn key to start etc, and I try many times, turning the car off and on (from inside) but to no avail - can be quite embarassing!
What worked was to step outside the car, shut the door, and lock and unlock with the key outside. Opening the door and starting the car has then worked for me. Has happened twice in 4 months - two more times than hoped - but hope that may help should it happen again!
L

[tronicx83]

Originally Posted by Dohnut

For the un-initiated what is Care Key?

Instead of two normal keys - you now get a normal key and a bright orange "Care Key" - which has extra options such as setting a speed limit incase you give the car to a garage or valet type affair. (It is literally bright orange!)

Originally Posted by Lozzingers

That 18.8Kwh and bigger hp sounds like the
What worked was to step outside the car, shut the door, and lock and unlock with the key outside. Opening the door and starting the car has then worked for me. Has happened twice in 4 months - two more times than hoped - but hope that may help should it happen again!
L

Exactly the solution I ended up with... lock the car, walk away and allow the deadlocks to kick in... wait a min and then go back and try again. Seems the deadlock is also the fancy electronics shutting down as well.

[rhd443]

Originally Posted by tronicx83

The wife and I picked up our XC90 Inscription Expression T8 at the beginning of January - its got the new 18kWh/145hp electric powertrain, so I thought I'd drop my thoughts here as an early review.

STATS:

• ODO - 345m
• 96% Electric and 4% Fuel usage
• 188mpg average fuel consumption in the app

Powertrain - Love it.. so fricken smooth. 90% of our journeys are local school runs, park-runs and shopping runs, so we can do this 100% electric.
No hesitations pulling off, plenty of power there when you need it (like at a roundabout or busy juntion) and it's just a delight to drive in general.

Powertrain economy - Fine. I drove 30-miles to work this morning, 38-mins driving of which 25 mins and 20 miles were on motorways doing ~70mph - all on electric with the exception of 30seconds where I needed to overtake and then it dropped back to electric again. (720mpg according to the journal!)

In-Car Entertainment - is okay. CarPlay is great, it's a shame its wired only and such a small part of the screen. Also, it took me a while to get DAB to be the default radio setting (still not sure how I managed it) rather than FM.

Other love points - things we like

• Drive comfort - it's definitely less crashy than our previous Disco Sport
• Size - it fits everything, kids, adults, kids crap - it swallows it all and asks for more
• Pre-conditioning - gotta love a warm cabin, seat and steering wheel when you set off in the freezing cold (Oh, FYI - this runs off the house charger while plugged in)

Negatives - things I don't like, or have tripped us up:

• Care Key - What is this? I mean, I know what it is, but it's a joke of an idea. Dealer said they can convert it to a standard key so we can use it with a Driver Profile, but I expect that'll come with a cost.
• Car wouldn't start - yesterday the wife loaded the kids and all into the car and it just wouldn't start. "Turn Start knob to start" - it kept repeating. Cue a lot of cursing from the wife. I managed to get it started, half hour later after a bit of back-and-forth with the non-the-wiser dealership. VOC is useless for actually troubleshooting an issue it turns out.
• Manual kids locks - ugh. Electronic kids locking was a basic function on the Disco Sport, and in the XC90 it's a paid add-on. So I have to get this thing they call a key and stick it in a hole in the door... what is this, the 90's?

It would be interesting to see how quickly the car defrosts/demists itself now the heater isnt fuel fired but uses electric in the newer models, so an example, you will never be able to precondition every time, i..e its parked in a public car park and your not plugged in with low range, or you need to leave in a hurry one day.

How quickly will it defrost/demist if you need to drive away? I suspect its back to a normal ICE car behaviour there and takes quite a while to clear up.

[techwatcher]

Originally Posted by tronicx83

[*]Care Key - What is this? I mean, I know what it is, but it's a joke of an idea. Dealer said they can convert it to a standard key so we can use it with a Driver Profile, but I expect that'll come with a cost.

The Care Key has NOT been popular and I'm a little surprised that Volvo has stuck with it.

They can't convert the Care Key as such to a standard key but you can buy an additional standard key and yes, there's a cost. When we went through this back in September 2020, initial quote for an additional key was £375 (gulp!). After some discussions with the dealer we actually paid £160 and I understand that the current price from Volvo is £75.

[tronicx83]

Originally Posted by rhd443

How quickly will it defrost/demist if you need to drive away? I suspect its back to a normal ICE car behaviour there and takes quite a while to clear up.

I have the Climate pack with heated windscreen, so demisting doesn't take long. If you just use the cabin heater then probably a long time. My EV charger shows the car drawing 3kWh when it's pre-conditioning which I think also includes warming up the ICE too (I could be wrong here).

I have once forgotten to pre-condition, it took about 3-mins to clear the glass down on battery standing still but the ICE engaged once driving - I suspect driving and trying to heat the cabin and seat and windscreens and steering wheel was just too much draw.

[Oop north]

If you have to get out and lock it before trying to start again then that sounds just like a Jaguar or Land Rover sort of fault.

[Dohnut]

Originally Posted by tronicx83

Instead of two normal keys - you now get a normal key and a bright orange "Care Key" - which has extra options such as setting a speed limit incase you give the car to a garage or valet type affair. (It is literally bright orange!).

If you only get one “proper” key, what’s the point of driver profiles?

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by tronicx83

Instead of two normal keys - you now get a normal key and a bright orange "Care Key" - which has extra options such as setting a speed limit incase you give the car to a garage or valet type affair. (It is literally bright orange!)

Ferris Bueller could have done with that!

https://images.app.goo.gl/gk4Mssn22TthR9Jo8