EV out, petrol in, via subscription deal
Petrol replaces electricity as we put our subscription car to the test on the open road
WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT
MARK TISSHAW
To evaluate Netflix-style subscription services as a way of ‘buying’ a new car
After lots of time making use of the plug-in hybrid XC60’S electric range on local journeys, at last a longer drive was on the cards to really stretch its legs. Since the pandemic started, I’ve gone from about 20,000 miles per year to about a quarter of that, with a fairly long commute and longer weekend drives swapped for working from our spare bedroom and lots of short local journeys that largely make use of electric power.
PHEVS are at their best when most of your driving is local, so you can make use of the electric range (still no more than around 20 miles in the XC60 T8), and the petrol tank is used on more occasional longer journeys. As always, if you do high mileages, they aren’t really for you – but who can blame people for picking them anyway when the tax savings are so good for company car drivers?
As with most PHEVS, the XC60 T8 can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. You can leave it in the standard Hybrid mode, use the battery until it’s empty (unless you’re keen with your right foot, at which point the engine will abruptly cut in too) and then let the engine take over. That’s largely how I’ve driven it to date, given how little I’ve needed to tuck into the fuel tank.
There are more driving modes other than the default one that can be scrolled through using a rocker switch on the centre tunnel. They go from the ability to drive solely on electric power to having permanent four-wheel drive, where the petrol-powered front axle and battery-powered rear axle are fired up at the same time.
You can go into the rather complicated menu on the central touchscreen and opt to save your electric range for later in the journey; or choose to charge the battery using the engine, which to me always sounds pointlessly wasteful.
So, like I always end up doing in cars like this, I left it in the default hybrid mode for a 200-mile round trip to the Midlands that was mainly motorway. The electric range was soon depleted, but when the car cuts back to petrol once everything is warm and you’re at speed, it is now less abrupt than when we first took delivery. The car feels brisk whichever mode it’s in, and a surge forward is never further away than a sharp press on the accelerator pedal.
Speaking of which, I just couldn’t find a comfortable place for my foot on the pedal on this longer journey – a rare ergonomic oversight in an otherwise thoughtfully laid out, comfortable interior.
The XC60 T8 isn’t alone in becoming quite thirsty once it’s out of electricity. A combination of a heavy battery pack, a powerful but smaller-capacity petrol engine and an SUV body makes economy just under 30mpg not uncommon on the motorway. When the petrol range of about 350 miles was showing, I thought the fuel tank was smaller to make space for the batteries, but it’s still 70 litres. Regular trips to forecourts will be in order if the majority of your drives aren’t short.
The rest of the XC60 T8’s cruising manners are largely excellent. It’s a very relaxing car to drive, not as firm in its ride or as urgent in its handling as its German rivals. It takes things at its own more relaxed pace, majoring on that underrated value of comfort.
Still, I sense a diesel XC60 would make for an even more welcome companion should journeys like this become the norm for me once more.