Today I drove the future! V60 Hybrid

[volvorocks]

This is on the configurator at circa £50k.

It may be worth buying, if one thinks about it, because lets face it, how many of us XC60 owners have spent less than £35k for a 30mpg AWD car? Nah, most of us have spent upwards of £35k and at £50k if this hybrid provides the consumption suggested, just think at 150mpg equivalent, what that would mean for high mileage drivers.

Time will tell.

Regards

[rippedoffagain]

Its good to know that 10 years from now, with typical devaluation, there'll be such cars available to the likes of me

I didn't mean to imply that the electric motors were feeble by the way, I just meant that the only person I've actually known to have a hybrid had one that was feeble, and I'd have kind of expected them to be a bit feeble after about 30 or 40mph, simply because of the engineering challenges faced in designing them. The idea of electric vehicles has been around at least since I was little (milk floats anyone?), but they were not built because of the trade-off between performance and battery requirements. 1hp = 712 watts, so lets say 150hp for a respectable output would need 712 * 150 = nearly 107kW. Lets say the battery voltage is 12v (it doesn't matter because the formula is still the same, but we need a figure to calculate with). The current draw would be 107,000 / 12 = about 8900 amps (enough to melt some fairly beefy cables). Lets say that on a typical journey, the average horse power used is only 50% of the capability (sometimes you'll use it all, sometimes none, and everything in between). Lets also say that a typical journey takes 30 minutes. So first we half the peak current draw: 4450 amps, then half it again (because our journey is half an hour, not one hour) to get our amp/hours = 2225 amp/hours. That's the minimum storage capacity we'd need in the battery, in order to give us the equivalent of a 150bhp petrol engine for a typical 30 minute journey. The biggest car battery I've ever seen was on my old diesel Vectra, and that was 90ah. You'd need 24 of those in my hypothetical 150 bhp electric car capable of a 30 minute journey. That's a lot of weight to add, and a lot of charging time, so not really practical. This is why its been slow to catch on.

Of course technology moves on, but the physics is still physics, so the game has to be about finding efficiency savings and reducing the battery weight, but from what I understand, we're still not fully there yet (hence hybrids being more common that 100% electric cars). This is why I had the impression that the electric motor on its own can't be great. In my hypothetical example of 150hp the battery requirements are impractical, so the most logical solution is to take that 150hp and reduce it to something like 30hp, which will do a perfectly fine job of pulling an average size car and occupants upto about 30mph as long as you're not in a race. Then chuck in a small petrol engine capable of say 120hp and then you've got your total 150hp and your efficiency.

Of course, all that said, I'm not knocking the idea. One engineer will work the details out better than I ever could, and Volvo (or any car manufacturer) doesn't have one engineer, they have many.

[volvorocks]

The problem with cars in excess of 50 or 60 or 70 grand is that eco doesn't really come into it..............

Lets be honest, you have 60 grand plus to spend - what do you buy - a secondhand Lambo or Aston or a new Nissan GTR or PERHAPS a new Volvo V60! Yep I am sure what you will choose and I doubt it would be the V60.

When these hybrids come down in price, then and only then will they be ''the future''

Regards

[Ninja59]

I think they max out about 48K, take off 5K government incentive though...

[volvorocks]

Hi Ninja

If options are added its very near to £60k

I have just built one, and adding just a few things like privacy glass, premium audio, sunroof, PCC, ACC and a few bits like metallic it came out at £53k!!

Basically its £15k dearer than a D5 and twice the price of a D4 which is what most people would opt for I reckon, as the D4 is a great 'inbetweener'

Regards

[Harvey1512]

At the moment these cars are vanity projects for mfrs, the same as electric cars. When they come in at equal pricing they will be a viable option but at the moment insufficient people are willing to pay a price for a car they can buy with a petrol/diesel engine at half the price, why would they? The idea appeals but the pricing has to be right. Price drives everything.

[craigv60]

Autocar magazine recently did a full road test on the V60 hybrid. They liked it and praised the performance, but over the period of their test, got 46mpg.

OK, this included performance testing at the test track and all other types of driving, but it's not stunning in any case, and is probably a good indicator of what many drivers might get in real-world conditions.

I suppose you could say 46mpg is great for a car with that level of performance ... but it's a very expensive car, as others have said.

[Crockers]

Very true....but just what other cars offer
1st class safety
All wheel Drive
Fantastic performance
Nigh on 50 mpg
Low emissions

For that price "?

[Harvey1512]

But will they sell more than 10 in the UK this year? If people had £50k to spend would it go on a V60? I think the answer will prove to be no.

Before people think I am a luddite, I'm not. I hope this car does progress and become affordable as I would be happy to get one, 2wd would be fine. My point is that at this moment, this car and the electric ones out there are not financially viable for everyday drivers and until they become affordable they are projects and nothing more. Good idea and let's face it, at some point you have to start somewhere. Let's hope they progress quickly enough before the whole concept sends them into bankruptcy.

[acb5]

I have just ordered one. This car is not really for personal purchases but companies. I can write off the full value of the car against my accounts for the year and only pay 5% company car tax. I am going from an Audi Q5. The V60 will be quicker and spec for spec is about the same price. The only issue is the small boot but 95% of the time the car is used by me only during the week. We will use it weekends though as transporting kids around here and there on short journeys we can use the car in full electric mode.

The problem is that orders are not being sent out until November!!