Hi All,

New to forum. Recently purchased our first Volvo, a 2024 XC90 T8 Recharge. It's also our first electrified vehicle so everything is brand new to us. So far we're very pleased with the car and it's doing exactly what we bought it for - almost eliminating the need to use gas. Since the purchase in June, we've driven it about 1,800 miles, almost entirely in our daily radius of 15 miles or so. The car has dropped out of PURE mode only three times and we took one out-of-town trip of about 100 miles. We have yet to put a drop of gas in it. We left the dealership with 400 miles of gas range showing and we currently have 220. Our previous car, an Audi Q8 S-Line, would have used at least $300+ of gas in the same time. We know charging isn't free, but our best and conservative calculations have our charging costs at around $80 total. Of course, all of you Recharge owners already know all this, but we're really pumped about the decision to buy the Recharge, so I had to share. Now for a couple questions.

What is the fairly hefty fan noise that starts up each time I unplug the car until I open one of the doors? How long would it run if I let it? We already had a 50A receptacle for our RV in the house garage which is available now since we keep the motorhome in it's own garage. I bought a TERA charger (on a nice sale at Amazon - $100) and it has reduced charging times dramatically from the 120V-15A I was using. However, I'm not really comfortable with my charging knowledge yet. The TERA offers charging amps of 8, 10, 13 and 16 at 240V. Is there any advantage to using any of the lower amps? Would any of them extend battery life or is that all pretty much a function of the onboard Volvo charger? Thanks for comments.

 

Welcome to our community. You have the same model/year I do and I'm loving it as well. Having had a '21 model XC60 T8, this is my 2nd one in Volvo badging.
In answer to your selection of available Amps to use for charging, go for the highest and you'll charge faster. For us, there is virtually no difference re: easier on the battery pack life etc., only the speed of the charge. It will use the same amount of juice; it will just be quicker. Our chargers are actually built into the car, and they determine how much juice the battery pack can take and how fast. And good price on your TERA charging device. I've not heard of that brand/model.

Re: the fan noise you hear when you un-plug it, the car is actually doing a quick air change inside. If you just un-plug it and walk away, it will run for around 5 minutes or so, then shut itself off. It's all good. Also, re: outside noise, you'll notice a different noise from the A/C when it's running in total electric verses with the gas engine running. Total electric runs the heat exchanger behind the lower grill passenger side, while the gas engine runs the normal A/C compressor. If you do, it's normal.

I sometimes change the 'driving' setting to Hybrid so the car will burn some of the gas and require me to add some just to keep it fresh LOL. It's not listed anywhere that I've found, it just makes sense to not let that 'Premium' fuel go stale. Like you, unless I go out of town, I could get by on KWH only LOL. This car just makes sense.

Happy Electric Motoring

 

Thanks, Cruiter, for the detailed info. Each little thing I learn makes the new driving experience a little more enjoyable. You verified several things that I thought I had learned along the way so that's a good thing. I think I probably didn't need the TERA "adapter" which is really all it is. I should have just converted our existing 240V-50A receptacle to 20A and used the other adapter that came with the car. Chances are, though, I'd have done the work myself and messed up one way or the other, then the electrician would have cost even more. Pretty sure the TERA saved me what it cost in the long run, and probably a lot of consternation.

Otherwise, I'm glad to know the fan and other noises are completely normal. I, too, have started using hybrid mode purposely to do exactly as you mentioned. Our new electrified driving experience isn't diminished by having to pump $20 of gas in every now and then. And I love it when we've been driving in hybrid mode for a while and the computer does its calculations, then tells us we're getting 1,082 mpg (or some other, even more preposterous, number). I can't hold back a chuckle every time. I've had to take a photo of the dash to prove it to family and friends. It's just plain nuts how much we've been saving since we made the purchase. We've owned many dozens of vehicles in the last half century, but I feel confident that every car in our future will have an electrified drive-train of some type, and quite likely be a Volvo.

Thanks again!