We just recently purchased a 2020 XC90 T6 (First ever Volvo).. Love it so far, with just a couple small annoying issues. One question I wanted to ask the group is the accuracy of the DTE (distance to empty) reading. We took a decent road trip a week after we purchased the vehicle (Dallas to Colorado). On our way home we noticed the DTE drop every 10 miles was very inaccurate. The following are what we saw at steady speeds on the highway with Pilot set. 2, 3, 7, 20, 7, 5, 11. I just took it to the dealer and they are saying the software is up to date and that it's operating to OEM specs.. Thoughts? Do you tend to see when travelling on level highway at constant speeds miles driven would be pretty close to distance to empty or is it very inaccurate??

Thank you!

 

So, the dealer said basically it is what it is.. Vehicle is operating as designed... I have never seen such a inaccurate system in my life!! Picked up the car from the dealer. Upon start up it said 310 miles to empty. By the time I got home (23 miles) it showed 330 miles to empty. My wife just drove it 3 miles and it was 360 miles to empty when she started it up then it dropped to 330 miles to empty by the time she got to the destination again 3 miles away. This is just crazy to me and no way it can be normal for a car with as much technology.

 

not crazy. The way the software works is it monitors your recent average MPGs then estimates the fuel remaining in the tank to calculate the miles to empty. the average MPGs will vary based on your recent driving activity. Since your recent average MPGs vary, so will the miles to empty.

 

If you think that is wacky, try driving a new T8!! I just filled up recently after traveling 942 miles and still had 1/4 tank of fuel left. Yes that is 61.4 mpg but my DTE showed 90 miles to empty at the time, when in actuality it should have been in the neighborhood of 250 miles DTE based on my mpg for that tank of fuel. What I have been told is it is the calculation of the ICE engine use only based on the last 10-20 miles of ICE engine running history, projected moving forward. Most of the time when my ICE engine is running, it is charging the hybrid battery or running on the highway after the ERAD battery is empty. However, since most of my driving are local trips of 30 miles or less, and the first 20-24 miles are in pure EV running, the amount of time the ICE engine is operating at all is only when it would be running in its least efficient mode (charging the battery). In my other hybrid vehicle it updates very frequently and not in 10 mpg increments either. It is very accurate and adjusts to driving conditions and habits. I find the Volvo DTE algorithm to be useless.

 

Thanks for your input. To your point the DTE reading is not at all reliable. I would have loved a T8, but didn't want to spend that much. We will just deal with it and try not to look down and dwell upon the reading... When it drops 50 DTE in the span of about 10 miles driven, on the highway and after at least 2 hours of driving on said highway with Pilot on is crazy. And no, we were not driving up I-70 to go to the mountains. My rant is over. Hope you enjoy your ride. Overall, we do like it a lot. Love driving in Pilot Assist mode. Makes for a much easier drive.

 

I believe the owner's manual explains how it works. As mentioned, it uses recent driving (last 20 miles I believe).

Do people really depend on this so much when driving? I check the fuel gauge and if I have fuel, I go. If I need fuel, I fill up.

 

I have driven 135 miles since the last fill up and the ICE engine has been running for no longer than one minute of that distance over the multiple short trips it has been used. When I filled up the DTE showed 530 miles to empty. Now it shows 509 and like I said that ICE engine has been operating for no longer than one minute so far. The other MPG tracker shows a consistent 150mpg because of the all 99.9% EV running so far. The figure on the dash gauge shows 1,174 mpg which I know is ridiculous and not accurate. Once I have more ICE engine operations on this tank, that number will become more accurate. Just seems odd that with all of this technology, something like this would not have been worked out like other manufacturers have done for years. Little problems I know. High class problems for sure as there are way more important things to be annoyed about these days. Also I am very easily able to drive 24-26 miles of all EV driving before the ICE engine starts up. At a full charge, in hybrid mode it shows 20 miles of range. When I put it into pure mode, I see 21. Clearly putting it into b mode assists in the re-gen which provides for even more range. Truly awesome for a 5,100 lbs luxury vehicle that is NOT a pure EV vehicle.