I'm having to charge the car for a whopping 15 to 15.5 hours on 110v. That's bad enough and I do plan to upgrade to a 220v outlet to help. But worse is seeing only 33 mile range displayed on the dash once it's 100% charged. This is the extended range T8 that's supposed to get 40 miles on pure electric. Is anyone else seeing these problems?

 

Is it super cold where you live? That could impact the range calculation.

 

North Carolina. Overnight Temps have been in the 30s lately and high 50 or so. Would the car know the weather while charging? Weird. To me, it seems like the batteries are not taking a full charge. And the charging time is ridiculously high at 15+ hours on 110v. Supposed to be 12 hours max.

 

The car definitely knows the temperature while charging, but I agree on charge time being too long and I'm not sure if cold temps influence charge speed on this car (I know they do on EVs that support fast charging). I suppose it could be the charge circuit - maybe voltage is a little low and it can't draw as much. Using an extension cord from the wall might also influence it. When you get your 220V circuit it will give you the chance to eliminate the 110V circuit as a source of the issue.

The reduced range could be a function of temp rather than battery or charge capacity, but given your location and weather patterns I'd be surprised to see it be impacted that much.

One thing you might be able to do if you have a public charging station in a convenient location is to run the battery down and see how much power the public station delivers filling up the battery. It should be ~ 14.4 kWh.

 

110v is slow
Is the vehicle locked or unlocked when charging?
are the key fobs at least 20-30ft away from the vehicle?
are you using an extension cord along with the charge cable?

thanks T

 

Thanks Philip & T. Yes the car is locked when charging, as it won't charge otherwise. One of the 2 key fobs is kept in the garage on the wall right next to the car. The other is in my purse inside the house. I am not using an extension cord. I guess I'll wait for the 220v upgrade and see what happens then. It's not that important to try and fill up at a public charging station for 12+ hours.

I filled the tank the other day. It took 8.8 gallons and I had driven 600 miles. That works out to about 68 mpg. I'm pretty happy about that!

 

Hi Scooter. 220v is the way to go if you use your vehicle multiple times a day and want to top off. if your workplace does have 110v outlet near parking spots, maybe take the charge cable with you and charge while your vehicle sits. That should also help reduce time charging at home.

range: ours fluctuates between 33 and 40 depending on temperature and the way you drive. It learns how many miles you get from each kw. So if you live in hilly areas, your estimate will be lower. Lead foot, range estimates will be lower. Cooler temps <50F, lower. The app sometimes tells me I have 56mi range but my wife’s app shows 36mi. We get to the vehicle and it’s but then the car shows standard 36mi or maybe 38mi. Something completely different. Don’t rely on the app.

As for the key in the garage, you may want to take that key inside for a few days and see if the charge time comes down. There are some threads that elude to keys near the vehicle, make the car think you will be wanting to go out soon and the vehicle goes through motions of warming up the batteries or cooling them down. This could be the reason charge times are extended the extra 2-3hrs on 120v. Just a theory to test.

Public charging: in my opinion, unless the charge stations are free or cost less than $0.17-0.25/kw, depending on the cost of gas in your area, you are just throwing money away by charging at public stations.
For instance, charge point at one of the malls here in texas charges $3/hr which for the T8 amounts to a theoretical 3.7kw of charge/hr on these 220v chargers. This amounts to ~7.4miles range. You are better off using that $3 toward gasoline as that $3 would buy you between 18-25miles range.
Note, even when you have no range, the battery still pushes the electric motors from dead stops to assist in mpg. Just won’t operate during regular cruising.

if you had a Tesla, Volvo full electric or other EV with the capability of taking much higher charge rates than our 3.6kw onboard charge controllers, that $3/hr may make more sense as long as the charger has the capability of delivering the wattage.

look forward to seeing your charge time results from removing the key in the garage.

 

T, removal of the key from the garage didn't affect the charge time or range.

 

thanks for trying that experiment. For range, didn’t think that would change with charging time. That may be a dealer checkup thing.
For charge time, Only other options is 1). Try to charge it somewhere else. If it takes shorter time, then there is something going on with your home’s electricity(noise on the line)?
2). Have the dealer give you another charge cable to test. Maybe the charge cable you have is not providing the full 12A current.

 

@Scooter32 - for what it's worth, I've also seen my range predictions fall with the lower temps and my use of the electric heater. Previously, my heater was broken so the cold weather didn't really influence my range guidance too much. With the heater repaired, my range forecasts are now in the 30's just like yours. As Tbob noted, the range prediction is dynamic based on actual power utilization, so I'd expect your range forecast to increase as temps rise again in the spring. Today was warmer here in GA and I've been getting closer to 3 miles / KwH. When it was colder last week it was closer to 2 than 3, so it definitely makes a difference.

Best of luck,
Philip.

 

According to the Volvo USA site, the MY XC60 Recharge get 35 miles in pure mode.

 

Depends on how many amps your 120V line is pushing on your charge circuit. According to the MY23 XC60 Recharge Owners Manual, charging on a 120V circuit can take anywhere from 24 hours (6 amps) to 10 hours (16 amps). How many amps is your charging circuit pushing?

 

Oh wow Kupe. You're right. I just did a Google search and see all kinds of different sites that say 35/36 mile range. I swear I was told, or had read last year, that it is 40 with the T8 Recharge extended range. When I picked it up at the dealer and had my lengthy training on the car, it had actually said 50 mile range! No idea why it said that. Anyway, I guess I'm doing okay. I do hate the charge time but will soon be fixing that when we upgrade to a 220v service through the power company.

 

I have a 2023 XC60 Recharge. I got it in September which is nice and warm here in the Philadelphia area. The last couple of months have been consistently dropping to the 30s or below at night and we just had a weekend of 20s. I have a 110v outlet and all of a sudden it went from 9 hours to charge to 13 hours. My range had always been about 42 miles and now is lower as I use the seat warmer and steering wheel warmer. If I run the heater it's even worse. I only commute a few miles each way, but I am finding that I need to charge it before the chàrge gets too low or charging it overnight doesn't cut it.
I may price getting a 220v outlet.....

 

Here in GA I paid about $200 to have a 220V outlet installed. My breaker box is in my garage so they didn't need to run the circuit more than a few feet, which definitely helped.

 

That's great to know -- our breaker box is on the same wall in our garage as well. I was hoping that would make it easier.

 

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum and to Volvo. Literally just picked up my new XC60 Recharge yesterday.
The charging time does seem a bit disappointing.

I do have what I believe to be a 220V outlet in the garage, but I am not sure, so here I am asking for help.
(I'm as versed in electricity as I am in animal husbandry, so apologies in advance for any dumb statements I make)
The outlet shows
NEMA 6-50
50A - 250V GRDG

If that works, what sort of adapter will I need, and is that something I can get from Volvo?

Thanks in advance,
Luis (with the clunky user name - realized too late it could not be changed)

 

Looks like you have a dryer plug in the garage. all you need is an adapter you can find at Home Depot or Amazon.
here are a couple choices

1.5 FT NEMA 6-50P to 6-20R Welder Adapter Cord ,Electric Vehicle Charging Adapter ,50 to 30 Amp,250V,STW 12AWG*3C Cable and The Cable UL Certification,Orange https://a.co/d/7fDYHbK

ONETAK NEMA 6-50P to 5-15R 5-20R 6-15R 6-20R Compact 240V 50 Amp 3 Prong Male Plug to 240V 15 Amp 20 Amp 3 Prong Female Receptacle Generator Welder Dryer EV Charger Power Cord Adapter Connector https://a.co/d/3BPx5WM

SIDENOTE on electrical safety: just make sure whatever you buy is UL or ETL certified. I have seen a lot of 120v and 240v electrical parts(electronics, chargers. plugs and extension cords) sold on Amazon and elsewhere that do not have the certification. Yes it costs $ to have done but it confirms the product passed all SAFETY measures under worst case scenarios. They may say CE or ROHS or TUV or FCC. That is not recognized in USA as electrical safety tested and passed. Even simple phone charger I will not buy unless it is ETL or UL.
Reason being is you are more likely to have a house fire when the phone charger or in this case the adaptor wires gets too hot since made substandard, melts the wires and plastic housing and since the wire insulator is not UL material, it ignites and and causes a fire. Then insurance company comes in and finds out from the fire department that the source was a $20 part that had no business being bought in the first place, they may deny the claim.

 

Thank you!
I am all for no fires anywhere so I appreciate the advice on the certification.

My other concern is that neither the dealership nor Volvo customer care were able to understand what I was talking about.
They did mention the second adapter in the OEM cable, but couldn't provide any feedback on whether/how the outlet I have would work with a different adapter.
The reason that's a concern is that... this is a lease. It's actually my first leased car (and I hope I will not end up regretting it - fingers crossed) so I don't want to risk any damage because I did not follow "recommended procedure".

Besides the risks posed by the potential low quality of the cable itself, it sounds like there should be no worries about the charging itself, correct? I understand that although what the outlet (which was already here when I bought the house) shows is 250V, what I will likely be getting is 110V times two. In any case, the OEM charging cable must have some sort of embedded "surge protection", right?

I truly appreciate your input, and that of anyone who can chime in with their own experience.

Cheers from Vancouver WA,
Luis

 

If you're really concerned, there are two things you could do as alternatives:

1. Replace the outlet with the type that matches the OEM 240V plug. The replacement outlet wouldn't cost more than a few dollars. Then also have them replace the breaker for that circuit with the correct amperage (I think it's 15A) to avoid the potential to overload the outlet or the OEM EVSE. The whole job shouldn't cost more than a hundred dollars from an electrician. You could then retain the original outlet and breaker should you wish to upgrade later.
2. Keep your outlet and buy a non-OEM EVSE wall unit. These run about $500-$800. They will provide you absolutely no benefit in terms of charge speed on your Volvo, but they will work fine and will provide faster charging if you later buy a full EV that supports faster charging.

All that said, I really think an adapter is fine. Volvo customer service is not well versed on almost anything, especially not these kinds of issues. Even if they were, they would probably be required to tell you to get an electrician to check everything purely for liability reasons. So long as you use a quality level 2 EVSE (including the OEM one), you should not have anything to worry about with charging, lease or not.