Volvo S60 T8

Long-awaited plug-in hybrid presents a nice change of pace

Our 299bhp plug-in hybrid arrives

the particularly smart-looking £975 Bursting Blue metallic paint job. Speaking of options, there’s also a tilting and sliding glass roof, a 14-speaker Harman Kardon hi-fi upgrade and a Climate pack that adds heated rear seats, steering wheel and front screen. Oh, and there’s a retractable towbar.

All in, that takes the £45,105 asking price to an eye-watering £51,750. That’s rather a lot, even for a business user, who can take advantage of the low CO2 emissions for lower benefit-in-kind bills.

Still, the initial impressions are positive. Only a handful of miles have passed under the T8’s wheels, but it feels quick, capable, comfortable (the car seems to ride better on its passive dampers than the Inscription did on its adaptive items) and refined, especially when running on electricity alone. I have yet to see more than an indicated 25 miles of electric range from a full charge and the current fuel figure of 65.4mpg is good rather than spectacular, but I’m looking forward to learning how to get the best out of this intriguing powertrain over the coming months.