Motoring
Volvo might be producing some excellent SUVs these days – and that might be all the general market cares about – but it still knows how to build a damn fine wagon. And the V60 T8 is a perfect example of that.
Well, of course I am – after all, anyone who grew up watching the awesome 850 Estate touring car getting its elbows out (and two wheels in the air) in the BTCC in the mid-90s is almost certainly a tragic Volvo station wagon fanboy today. I mean, how could you not be? Plus, wagons are just awesome anyway.
But the V60 in T8 R-Design form is a car that almost literally proves that you can have your cake and eat it too.
As long as your cake is made up of wagon practicality with serious performance and astonishingly frugal economy.
The wagon practicality thing is obvious – it is a wagon, with loads of space in the back and clever Volvo touches, like the flip up divider adding to the overall air of sensible wagon ownership.
But the twist is the T8 drivetrain that consists of a 2.0-litre petrol engine driving the front wheels and an electric motor driving the rears.
Yes, but it is also where the serious performance comes from – you see, that 2.0-litre petrol engine pumps out an impressive 246kW of power, thanks to the fact that it is both turbo and supercharged, while the electric motor up the back provides a further 65kW (for a system total of 311kW), as well as bringing an additional 230Nm of torque to complement the twincharged engine’s 430Nm up front.
This produces a practical wagon that is capable of thundering to 100km from a standing start in just 4.5 seconds.
That’s supercar time from not all that long ago, and the V60 feels a very fast thing indeed when you drop the throttle.
The belligerent acceleration is accompanied by a unique and endearing guttural snarl when in Polestar Engineered mode (which is Volvo-speak for sport mode), which is a pleasantly surprising contrast to the silence it cruises around town in.
That’s where the hybrid-y magic comes in – the T8 is a plug-in hybrid that packs enough batteryon range for the average daily commute (40km on the readout, which usually translates easily into around 30 to 35km under real world conditions).
The first few days I spent just