Volvo Car’s V60 Polestar Engineered station wagon is a $77,500 five-seat beast in woke disguise.
Infotainment by Google in a nice but not overly eye-grabbing cabin.
It may look like peaceful and friendly, yet under that long hood is a 312 horsepower, 2.0-litre, direct-injected turbocharged gas engine mated to an electric motor rated at 143 hp. The combination spins up as much as 455 hp.
What does that mean in the real world? The answer is good and good.
The good, for anyone who wants to light their hair, on fire is this: 0-100 km/hour in the blink of an eye. For penny pinchers and global-warming worry warts (me, and all of you, I hope), is that this family hauler will also deliver, in a best-case scenario, perhaps 64 km of all-battery range. Combined fuel economy: 7.6 L/100 km.
Yes, you’ll need to fill up on premium fuel, but still…
Well, if you take full advantage of all this plug-in hybrid offers, you will get racy performance that leaves a relatively small footprint on the plant.
Now maximizing the benefits of a plug-in is not easy. You’ll need, for instance, five hours to recharge the battery using a 240V outlet. And if you live in a hi-rise tower, you are unlikely to have your own charging dock, so you will struggle to take full advantage of any plug-in hybrid.
However, wealthy suburban folks with an in-garage charger, who have, say, a half-hour commute to an office with charging stations, will find the sleek, low-slung V60 Polestar a useful alternative to most lumbering, high-centre-of-gravity SUVs.
Sleek and responsive.
And within the V60 Polestar’s most immediate competitive set, I’d take it over Lincoln’s slightly more powerful Aviator plug-in and even Audi’s Q5 S line plug-in.
Why?
The Volvo is much better looking that either rival, has vastly superior seats, more battery-only range, superior road manners and easily tops the Lincoln and the Audi in electric+gas (MPGe) energy consumption.
Okay, the Aviator’s cabin looks and feels more expensive than the Volvo’s rather tame interior. And you can kind of squeeze seven people into the Aviator if at least three of them are kiddie-size. The Lincoln is very powerful, but it’s also a tall SUV with cumbersome handling compared to the V60.
As for the Audi, in battery mode the range is about half the Volvo’s. The Audi is considerably shorter than the Volvo. You might like this compact-like look.
On the practical side of things, the smaller size makes the Audi a tiny-bit easier to park, and also helps deliver road manners that are a match for the Volvo. Shockingly, the Audi has more room in the second row. Cabin design? A wash. Personally, I prefer the Volvo’s no-nonsense approach to interiors, period. I usually take simplicity over complexity, however.
A design that has aged exceptionally well.
Yes, I would like more useful storage space in the V60’s interior. If you have lots of gadgets, think about this. Volvo Cars has gone to full Google integration, which means the functionality of the infotainment system is just like your Android smartphone. If you are an Apple person, you can make do quite easily; I have an iPhone and I lived with this car happily enough, though I needed a cable to go CarPlay.
Also note that only your first four years of ownership come with the full Digital Services Package – Google Automotive (Maps, Assistant, Play Store) and the Volvo Cars App. If you lease for 3-4 years, not a problem. If you plan to own for a decade, consider the added cost starting in Year 5.
Volvo introduced the current V60 generation way, way back in 2019. That means the design here, while pretty, is also well into middle age. It wouldn’t be a deal-buster for me, but not having the newest and coolest of designs might be for you.
