XC90 T8 battery size changes

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by Director76

I think all your lot’s cars were built in a different factory to mine!

34mpg+ on a long motorway jaunt...in my dreams. And I’m not a heavy footed loon, far from it, I’ve crafted hybrid driving to an art form, with strategic use of Pure, hold, B etc and switching between!

Have just checked my spreadsheet. Recent trip. Sheffield to Dumbarton (legitimate Covid allowed reason btw). M1/A1/A66/M6/M74/M8 and a tiny bit of farting through Glasgow as the Erskine bridge was shut, 276 miles. Full battery at start. 33.9mpg.

Return involved maybe 20 miles of local messing about and short journeys and one commute to Scunthorpe (and again with support of 1xfull battery charge) 334 miles. 30.7mpg.

All are proper calculated measurements on full fill ups. Cold weather too so cabin heater would have been on.

[dling]

I was always wondering, when ICE is on and warm during long journeys, is the cabin heater still working and uses additional petrol? Or the car uses the ICE’s warmth to heat the cabin?

Also, XC60, recent trip, full battery, 148 miles on highway +10 in the (empty) city, 80mph on cruise control (I do not live in the UK ), empty car and two adults: 38.9 mpg. I guess the difference in size/weight plus distance makes some difference.

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by dling

I was always wondering, when ICE is on and warm during long journeys, is the cabin heater still working and uses additional petrol? Or the car uses the ICE’s warmth to heat the cabin?

Also, XC60, recent trip, full battery, 148 miles on highway +10 in the (empty) city, 80mph on cruise control (I do not live in the UK ), empty car and two adults: 38.9 mpg. I guess the difference in size/weight plus distance makes some difference.

All the cabin heater does is heat the water in the cooling system. So if the engine is keeping the water warm enough then the heater will not run. So in theory on a long trip with the engine running, then the cabin heater should not need to run.

I made the reference to the cabin heater on my journey as it would be on at the start, and certainly on my 20 miles or so of local short journeys it would be running most of the time.

[Timmel]

OP here, just thought I’d update to confirm that I picked up my 2018 XC90 T8 a week ago and am loving it so far. I’m sure I’ll be posting on here to learn from your collective experience.

For interest, I had a 250 mile motorway trip to do after picking the car up to get home. As you’d expect, the battery was totally flat and I averaged 34.7mpg driving at 70-75, albeit with a few 50-60mph restricted sections. I was very happy with that to be honest!

My battery indicator always shows 23 miles when the battery is fully charged and I reckon this is more like 15 real world miles based on my last week of experimentation. Admittedly that is with the heated steering wheel and driver’s seat almost always on and I live in a hilly area. Is 23 miles range the standard starting figure for a 10.4kWh battery variant or do others see a different starting figure?

My car was registered Nov 2018 and I can confirm I also have the 71 litre fuel tank and the 300bhp engine rather than the 320bhp engine.

I’m really impressed with the turn of pace when you put your foot down and the smoothness in transition between hybrid and ICE is also very impressive.