► 2023 model year Volvo XC90 Hybrid review
► Bigger 19kWh battery, ’42-mile e-range‘
► Pricey Swedish seven-seater with 449bhp
The evergreen Volvo XC90 Recharge hybrid has been fettled for the 2023 model year, with a bigger battery, more power, zingier Google infotainment system and longer range to boost its plug-in credentials, on paper at least.
This hybrid SUV will remain relevant for some time yet, as the Volvo XC90 Recharge Plug-in Hybrid T8 AWD will continue to be sold alongside the pure electric Volvo EX90 arriving in dealers later in 2023, giving buyers a choice of PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) or BEV (battery electric vehicle) for many years to come.
The Volvo XC90 has become something of an icon for Middle England: every inch as popular as the Land Rover Discoverys that came to define the country family set. Its styling has aged gracefully: it still looks as sharp today as it did when it first burst upon the scene eight years ago and it’s still one of the best luxury hybrid cars you buy.
Read on for our Volvo XC90 Recharge T8 review to see if the 2023 upgrades have made a difference and whether you should pick this or a BMW X5 45e. And to see what we make of the petrol and diesel versions, don’t miss our regular Volvo XC90 review.
Volvo XC90 hybrid review
The XC90 T8 hybrid, or Recharge for short, is the most expensive, cleanest, most frugal and quickest car of the XC90 range. Its raison d’être is that it’s a seven-seat plug-in hybrid – something of a rarity still, even in 2023.
It’s aimed at the middle classes who can’t quite commit to a fully-electric car, but still want the tax breaks and street cred associated with one. It’s pricey, mind: the cheapest version, the Core, retails from £71,405 and our toppy Ultimate version stretches that to £83,130. It’s not cheap.
The 2023 update brings a hint of Q-car to the XC90, which now boasts a total power output of 449bhp when 2.0-litre petrol engine and 143bhp electric motor are both fired up. Lovers of stealthy performance cars will be salivating at the thought of a 2.3-tonne family-hauler cracking the 0-60mph sprint in a faintly ridiculous 5.1 seconds, even if that’ll chomp through the e-charge in no time at all.
The XC90 uses Volvo’s SPA scalable product architecture. This platform also underpins the S90 saloon and V90 estate, while the chassis was designed from the outset to package electric powertrains. In the T8 a petrol engine in the nose drives the front wheels via a very smooth-shifting eight-speed auto gearbox. A electric generator sandwiched between the two rapidly cranks the petrol engine into life, boosts torque and charges the larger-for-2023 18.8kWh battery as required.
The cells, housed along the central tunnel a propshaft normally calls home, feed a large single electric motor on the rear axle that also generates electricity under braking; we managed to add half a dozen miles when driving downhill from an Alpine ski resort. A control unit in the engine bay synchronises the two power sources, ensuring happy, efficient collaboration and all-wheel drive when required.
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Does the XC90 Recharge feel 449bhp fast?
There’s effortless performance throughout the rev range, rather than dragster punch. Mash throttle to carpet in Power mode and the T8 launches pretty smartly, the battery pouring power into the electric motor as the turbocharged and supercharged direct-injection 2.0-litre four slogs its guts out. As a performance powertrain it’s undoubtedly effective, the claimed 5.1sec 0-62mph feeling entirely believable, but the car’s not inconsequential weight (2297kg) blunts the feeling of performance.
This kind of heavy-footed tomfoolery also feels pretty inappropriate, not because the chassis can’t cope – far from it – but because the petrol engine’s strains lack charm, shattering the XC90’s otherwise very endearing serenity. This is a big car that prefers to mooch around, rather than be thrashed. As you might expect for a large, seven-seat SUV.
Volvo insists a more sonorous, higher cylinder count would have been incompatible with the firm’s product architecture and the wants of environmentally responsible consumers. Certainly the four-cylinder engine contributes much to the T8’s headline figures of 28-34g/km of CO2 and 188-235mpg on the WLTP combined cycle, though having driven several XC90 Recharge T8s, we can safely say the latter is an almost impossible figure in real-world driving.
The obscene three-figure MPG rating is synonymous with the plug-in hybrid car genre. We reckon if you charged religiously, and never drove more than 100 or so miles, the figure might be just about achievable. But the real hindrance to the XC90 is that when the battery is bereft of charge, you’re realistically looking at a sub-30mpg car.
Volvo XC90 hybrid: fuel economy and electric range
Volvo quotes an official electric range of 42 miles for the 2023 model year XC90 hybrid with the bigger battery, but in day-to-day mixed driving we never saw the onboard computer predict more than 32 miles. Fuel consumption varies wildly, depending on how you drive and charge it:
- Short hops around town Charge overnight, stay local, and you really can average nearly 100mpg
- Typical cross-country driving and town work Expect around 30mpg fuel consumption
- Long-cross-continental drive to France High-speed autoroute work averages 24mpg
Back to the XC90’s drive modes. It’s better to select the Hybrid and trade a little of Power’s throttle response and poke for improved economy and some far more agreeable peace and quiet. Either way, the integration of electric and petrol power is almost seamless. At smaller throttle openings the petrol engine chiming in and out is almost undetectable, and the brake pedal is similarly well resolved, passing through the regenerative phase and into hydraulic braking with no discernible shift in resistance.
The usual PHEV functionality ensures a good degree of control: choose Pure mode to use only electric, select Braking on the gear selector for stronger regenerative braking on downhill runs, or even a lower gear for increased engine braking; use the instrument display or the dead-spot in the throttle pedal’s travel to stay on electric power, rather than accidentally triggering the petrol engine’s assistance.
Volvo XC90: high-rise limo or lively steer?
Air-suspended XC90s deliver an impressive drive, blending a cosseting ride with impressive body control. Appropriately there’s a little initial roll before the outer air struts take up the slack, lending the 5m-long seven-seater the wieldy feel of something much smaller and lighter.
Conventionally sprung XC90s manage a good impression of the same body control, but lose a good deal of the ride quality, occasionally running out of answers on the kind of weather-beaten roads the UK does so well. Our advice is to budget for the air suspension, which also drops the rear of the car by 50mm on demand for the easy loading of heavy furniture and arthritic dogs. A handy feature.
Many Volvo XC90 hybrids come with larger, optional wheels and our test car riding on 21-inch rims was remarkably composed considering the low 40-profile rubber fitted.
Interior quality, features and space
Curious timbers, machined aluminium and acres of beige leather don’t sound too promising but, almost irrespective of colour choice, the Volvo XC90’s is one of the finest interiors out there, certainly in anything like a comparable price bracket.
It’s bristling with clever touches: notice the parking ticket holder on the windscreen’s A-pillar; the capless, Ford-era fuel filler; and our test car came in very sustainable woollen upholstery seats. I loved them, though my wife questioned their durability in the face of family life. They are predictably comfortable (Volvo has always done fabulous seats).
Fit and finish are exemplary, the design striking in a very pleasing, understated way and the overall sense of light, space and uncluttered calm a thoroughly Swedish ambience. Additional noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) work has banished much of the background chatter of fans and compressors a combustion engine’s machinations normally mask, leaving an impressive and luxurious absence of noise.
This helps occupants make the most of the fabulous Bowers & Wilkins stereo; our 2023 model year car showcased the Sensus Connect with Premium Sound option, now standard on top-spec Ultimate cars (but not offered on more lowly specs). Audiophiles will approve of its sumptuous, rich sound.
Now with Google Android infotainment
New for 2023 is the arrival of a Google-powered Android operating system. The Volvo infotainment had become a little creaky and now you get Google Maps and a host of apps that run fast on the native Android OS. Navigation is significantly better and voice recognition is impressive.
Call us old-fashioned, but we still bemoan how the heating switchgear has ceded control to the digital touchscreen though… the fiddly small buttons on the display are way harder to use than physical knobs – a rare Swedish lack of ergonomic clarity in our book.
The boot size is deeply impressive (although taller drivers may knock their head on the tailgate… watch out!). Even with all seven seats up, there is still a decent space for a few squashy bags in the back. Flop the third row of pews away (watching the auto-fold headrests concertina away in one smooth movement) and the boot floor is flat.
Seats six and seven are suitable for children and smaller adults will be comfy back there for short trips. The front and middle rows are vast, with plentiful space for feet under the front seats and easy access via wide-opening doors. Our test car had the £1500 Lounge pack whose full-length glass sunroof bathed the interior in daylight.
Volvo XC90 hybrid review: verdict
The XC90 is fundamentally a very fine SUV that is ageing well, and the hybrid powertrain has much to recommend it, not least the tax breaks afforded by its miserly CO2 outputs. And the newly bumped 449bhp combined outputs mean it’s got performance not far off what you might have found in a V8 SUV a decade-and-a-bit ago.
However, for most people a diesel-engined Volvo XC90 delivers comparable, if not superior, economy, particularly if the battery’s never charged from the grid (50% of its existing PHEV owners don’t plug in, according to Volvo!) but the T8’s potential for both lunging bouts of acceleration and silent electric running is hugely attractive. Much like the car itself.
Since being launched in 2015, other manufacturers have caught up by offering plug-in hybrid SUVs. Audi, Range Rover and BMW all have these in their arsenal – and all are newer than the XC90, the elder statesman of this sector. Yet, the XC90 still delivers in being devastatingly fast and handsome, and nowhere near as audacious and flashy as its European rivals. Volvo keeps fettling and updating it, helping the XC90 feel like something of a cut-price Range Rover – and that is praise indeed.
Read CAR’s long-term test of Volvo’s V60 Plug-in Hybrid