Hi there - I'm new here. I joined up because I am hoping to find other Volvo drivers (or future Volvo drivers) who will be receivng their T8s soon. I read somewhere that delivery to US customers is imminent.? I'm in Victoria BC and really close to placing an order but am scared to do so without hearing a few consumer reviews. Currently have an 2008 XC90 and a 2010 XC60 and a long history of previous beloved Volvos. I've been ready to go electric for a few years now and have been waiting for this car to be available. Though I do wish they'd make a hybridized V60 or XC60 available in North America now like in Europe, but that's another story. Anyhoo...thoughts on the T8? Anyone out their expecting to receive theirs soon and care to share your initial experiences?

 

It's a lot of money, nearly $20,000 US, for the plug-in feature. Unlike the Camry Hybrid which uses an Atkinson cycle engine and which gets about 10% better fuel economy as a result, the T8 appears to use the same 2.0L as the T6 and so will get essentially the same highway fuel economy since the battery won't come into play all that much.
I've been researching the T8 and if you're going strictly on economics, it will never pay for itself in several lifetimes. Maybe if gas goes to $5/gallon, it would have a shot but not as it stands.
Although Volvo seems to have gotten a handle on the teething issues with the XC90, the hybrid aspect scares me a little since it is so new and is such a big and expensive part of the car. It remains to be seen how well they have it sorted out and it may take years for the long term reliability to be known.

 

Thanks for your thoughts and calculations, mainesail. Economics has not been a factor for me thus far. I am also considering the Tesla X (though growing impatient and nervous about leaving Volvo because I have almost never driven anything else) so the T8 is very affordable in comparison, or equal over 10 years by some math I've seen. What attracts me is the 7 seats and finally taking a small step away from gasoline. I live in a small city and most of my drives are 15 km return or less, rarely more than twice a day (school runs, groceries, dog walks) and there seem to be parking spots with free charging all over the place, all sitting empty. So I think that I could do 90% of my driving in pure electric. I was initially crushed when Volvo announced the disappointing battery life/range for the T8 but with my lifestyle I can make it work if I don't want to wait for the Tesla or another 7 seat EV to come along. Until more super chargers are installed in my neck of the woods (apparently planned but who knows when), I need a gasoline option for any road trips anyhow.

More motivating than saving money at the pumps, I can't shake the feeling that it's my moral obligation to purchase a cleaner vehicle now that I can afford to. Even if my personal reduction in emissions is minuscule, the purchase supports a positive change in the industry.

It's your final point that is resonating with me - the fear of taking a risk on such a new technology. With three busy kids, it would be seriously inconvenient to have the car in and out of the shop often and I would be crushed if the pure electric performance ends up not being what they say it will be.

 

One thing to remember is that even Toyota, as successful as they've been with hybrids, had major issues with the Highlander Hybrid's inverter in the early years as well as the inverter cooling pump on the Prius. People were getting socked with $8-10,000 repair bills on the Highlander. I'm not sure if this is Volvo's first go-around with hybrid technology but if so, I'd definitely be cautious. We have had several new model cars and got bit on 2 Caravans and 1 Bonneville. I will say we've had fairly good luck with the V-60 although we do have one nagging issue that the dealer hasn't been able to resolve.
I say all of this as someone who was initially very attracted to the idea of the VX90 T8 but as I've thought it through, I've become less enamored of it, at least right away.
We have a Camry Hybrid which my wife loves. I don't because, although it does what it's supposed to do which is get good mileage, as a driving machine, it's pathetic due to it's tendency to wander all over the highway and total lack of self-centering of the steering.
You mentioned low battery range. I tried to find out more on Volvo's site but came up empty. What have you read?

 

Hi again - sorry for the delay in getting back to this, I really value your thoughts. I've been obsessing over this decision, getting lost in the details and watching my dealers' allocations gets snapped up by other buyers as I drag my feet. In the past two weeks, lots of reviews have popped up, from professional "first drives" to the first few US customers taking delivery. I'm not very knowledgeable about these things (this is a very steep learning curve for me!) so won't try to repeat anything and make a mistake, but you can google around for the reviews. Reviews were coming out of Asia and UK a few months ago but I've been waiting for the U.S. ones in case the North American version differed. The reviews are all phenomenal.

The T8 *should* get 25-40 km of driving time in pure electric, and exceltional fuel efficiency when in hybrid mode. With my lifestyle, I expect to be able to run it without any gas at all 90% of the time. I certainly wish the battery was much larger but I can live with this rather than wait years more for the next 7 seater PHEV to arrive on the scene. (Been researching that too, everyone is making promises but looks like it will be a while yet, other than the Tesla X which is delivering now, though the line up is long.)

I still have a few more factors to consider, but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go for it. I can afford to take the risk and like the idea of being one of the first to have this car. Weird since I've never bought a brand new car before. Cross your fingers for me!

 

Meant to add that this is not Volvo's first hybrid. A PHEV V60 has been doing very well overseas for a few years now. Though I think the XC90 T8 is the first to be built on the new scalable platform, whatever that is (you'll know more than I do on that I'm sure). From what I've been able to figure out, it has also been available elsewhere in the world for several months (maybe a year?).

 

We took delivery of our T8 a week and a half ago. So far so good. I wanted a car that would get me to work and do kid shuttling on electric and DH wanted the AWD to get us over the snowy mountain passes.

Seattle is very hilly and on pure electric the car goes ~13 miles before switching from pure to hybrid mode. Sometimes the gas engine switches on even though there is still plenty of power in the battery. I set it to 'pure' electric rather than 'hybrid' to keep it on electric as long as possible. In hybrid it sometimes switched to gas to get up steep hills, or when accelerating quickly.

Over the pass it did great in the snow and got ~27mpg on the trip out and back. The ACC and pilot assist are great features. The car is a bit of a nervous Nelly. It warns you of cars in your blind spot, if cars are following too close, and I read that it won't let you hit a car, pedestrian, or bike (hope to never test those!).

 

Thanks for sharing. The T8 would be our dream car and it may still wind up being what we purchase but with the price of gas and the premium for the hybrid drivetrain, any decision to buy won't be made based on economics.
It would be interesting to see what the fuel economy is on the highway and on relatively level road.

 

Thanks for your feedback SunnySeattle! I'm in Victoria so our cars will soon be able to wave at each other. My delivery date was just updated from April 4 to March 18 and I'm so excited. Interesting to hear that the car feels like a nervous nelly - I've been wondering if so many alerts would be helpful or annoying? I didn't hear any on my test drive but then again I stuck to fairly benign roads and was on my best behaviour. I have City Safety on my current XC60 and there was one spot in our vet's tight parking lot where it would apply the brakes to prevent a crash every time. It was weird the first time but now that I'm used to it, I would very very much appreciate it if there was a person in my path.

Are you charging it at home? Did you have a 240V outlet already in a convenient spot or did you have one installed? My electrician comes this week - any advice there?

And have you had enough time to see how the regenerative aspect of hybrid mode works? Tesla told me that their Vancouver owners are finding that they see their battery life increase on downhills more than it decreases on uphills, making the mountains really work for them. We head to Tofino quite often and I'm curious to see if the Volvo is as efficient.

Thank you again and please keep us posted with your observations.

 

The alerts are silent (light on the side mirror for someone in your blind spot, image on dash of cars too close, or if following too close, coffee cup with 'do you need a break' if you play with the lane keeping = try to drift out of your lane) the only sound alerts are if someone is coming up really fast and about to rear end you (almost happened!) the car tightened the seat belts on all of us and let out a rapid few quiet beeps of warning. Thankfully the person behind stopped in time! It also let out the same quiet beeping warnings if it detects a car stopped partially in your lane (that happened heading up the pass when someone was half in our lane putting on chains). The warnings are good and not annoying at all.

We installed a dedicated 220 plug in our garage for it. Charges in ~2 hours. Before that was installed it took 8-10 hours to charge on 110. The car also charges itself on downhills and braking. On our drive over the pass regeneration made 8.8 kWh. 5.1 one way and 3.7 the other. On my 3.5 mi drive to work it uses 2.2kWh and regenerates 0.5kWh. Zero gas used on my commute. The car is silent, no engine on in hybrid or pure during my commute, so no gas used. I figured out it gives itself more electric power in pure mode than hybrid mode, so the ICE doesn't turn on even up the hills to/from home and work. Hence I keep it in pure.

 

Since Tesla doesn't have an engine to assist the battery on an uphill climb, this would be known as the equivalent to perpetual motion. Sounds good but the laws of physics would dictate otherwise.