2021 - 2024 Volvo XC60 T6

[MK1RS Bruce]

Hi PH

My wife is looking for a new car in the near future and she’s quite keen on an XC60.

I’m leaning towards a T6, not massively enthusiastic about the plug in hybrid aspect but do quite like the sound of the power.

I’m struggling to determine if it’s got a prop going to the rear as well as the electric motor or just the electric motor to give it AWD?

I live in a rural part of Scotland so AWD is handy in the winter.

Any other reviews or thoughts on them, are they reasonably reliable?

Looking for a used one with less than 50k on the clock.

[MrTrilby]

MK1RS Bruce said:

Hi PH

My wife is looking for a new car in the near future and she s quite keen on an XC60.

I m leaning towards a T6, not massively enthusiastic about the plug in hybrid aspect but do quite like the sound of the power.

I m struggling to determine if it s got a prop going to the rear as well as the electric motor or just the electric motor to give it AWD?

I live in a rural part of Scotland so AWD is handy in the winter.

Any other reviews or thoughts on them, are they reasonably reliable?

Looking for a used one with less than 50k on the clock.

The rear axle is entirely electric - the "propshaft" is where the battery is stored for the PHEV. In 'EV only' mode it's a RWD car. In petrol-hybrid mode it's a FWD car. When it detects loss of grip it runs both axles to make it AWD. You can also select an 'constant AWD' mode that fires up the petrol engine to run the front axle, and uses the electric rear axle to give you permanent AWD. The petrol engine also feeds a generator, so there's no danger of the rear axle ever running out of power, even when the battery reports 0%.

The pre-2022 models have a much smaller battery (so less range), have a lower power electric rear axle, use a supercharger to fill in gaps in the turbocharger's boost, and have more reports of issues with the rear electric axle or auxiliary electric heater failing.

We have the later revised model - they bumped the electric axle up to 140BHP which makes it perfectly useable for electric only driving day-to-day; increased the battery to give it a real world range of 35-45 miles depending on temperature and what speed you drive at; and removed the supercharger (on the basis the rear electric axle is powerful enough to fill in the off-boost gaps from the engine). The rear axle was revised to make it more reliable (removed a clutch pack I think).

I really like ours - it's incredibly smooth to drive and very comfortable. It's more economical than the non-PHEV B5, even with the battery flat. Not had to use the AWD mode very much, but when we have, it's worked just fine. I think I'd be wanting one with a warranty, just in case that rear axle does fail (I think it's around £4k to replace). I'll be extending our warranty when the 3 year warranty runs out this year.