Since you don’t have Sensus, I don’t think AAOS can do the destination based battery management so I’d suggest hybrid and hold the battery while on the highway. Once you get off the highway or in traffic, turn Hold off to use the battery. If you run Pure on the highway, it will just deplete the battery extremely fast

 

But check if you have destination capabilities that manages battery consumption. The basic idea is that on a longer trip is you want electricity for local and traffic and ice for highway where electricity storage would get depleted very rapidly, especially at faster speeds.

has anyone checked battery consumption when averaging 75 mph and compared this an an average of a reduced speed like 50 mph?

also I don’t have scientific evidence of this thought either, but would use B in any situation where brakes are being used regularly, especially hilly, local and in traffic. On highways with mostly level driving I have read D can be useful but switching back to B if you find yourself needing to brake and then leaving in same until rarely braking returns.

 

First, if you REALLY care, drive slower, period! Then...
Run in Pure, burn off 1/3 tank of electrons from the start, so you have "room" to regen.
Then turn on "Hold" whenever you are in higher gears or constant speed. That is where ICE is most efficient.
Toggle "Hold" on and off when you get in traffic/stop signs/lights. If you have a lot of hills, and EV battery fills up over say 1/2 - 2/3, burn some off. If you have any left approaching destination, burn it then.
My personal best in a S90. Never happen again, but I got 37 twice over 500 miles.
(75) S90 T8 road trip to pick up mini S90. Amazing MPG results over 800+ miles, over 40MPG! | SwedeSpeed - Volvo Performance Forum

 

My experience with a 23.5 XC90 T8 is for any drive over 30 miles or if after a sub-30 mile trip when we won't have time to fully recharge, is to be in hybrid mode in AUTO with our route planned out.

I find that if I have a route that includes getting to a highway, driving on a highway, then getting off of the highway, that the system is smart enough to not use battery (essentially hold mode) while on the highway.

Granted, I've only had it for about a month, but I've never had a route entered (usually round trip) with anything other than great efficiency. Usually, we're arriving back home with 1 mile left on the battery, the calculations are that good. To be fair, we haven't taken the car out for more than a 100 mile round trip drive. Hybrid in auto mode with navigation on did us well for the two 100 mile days. With trips around 60-70 miles, hybrid and auto is proven here to be perfect.

It's gotten to the point that for my 20 mile round trip each morning (kids to school, parent back home), I don't even bother with Pure mode. I just leave it in hybrid and set the round trip destination. Yes, setting a round trip is annoying with AAOS, but it gets me to the school and back, including a pretty big uphill drive in one direction, with about 15 miles left on the battery and almost no gas consumption based on the gas usage over the last month. The car assumes that you will be able to recharge when you get to the last destination, so if the total distance (and hill, speed, traffic calculations) say it can do it on all battery, it will try to.

I also almost always drive in B mode. I don't know if this actually is better for regenerative braking, but I sure do like the generally 1 petal driving.

Here's our last 574 miles, which has used just under 1/2 tank of gas based on the gauge. It calculated 71.1mpg, and with a 18.8 gallon tank that's just over 1/2 full, the calculation sounds right 574 / 8 or so. Now, a bunch of this driving is the 20 mile round trip to school each day, almost all on battery, and then we have enough time to fully recharge before being out and about, and the rest of the trips are mostly short. This includes either 2 or 3 70 mile round trips.

 

My experience with a 23.5 XC90 T8 is for any drive over 30 miles or if after a sub-30 mile trip when we won't have time to fully recharge, is to be in hybrid mode in AUTO with our route planned out.

I find that if I have a route that includes getting to a highway, driving on a highway, then getting off of the highway, that the system is smart enough to not use battery (essentially hold mode) while on the highway.

Granted, I've only had it for about a month, but I've never had a route entered (usually round trip) with anything other than great efficiency. Usually, we're arriving back home with 1 mile left on the battery, the calculations are that good. To be fair, we haven't taken the car out for more than a 100 mile round trip drive. Hybrid in auto mode with navigation on did us well for the two 100 mile days. With trips around 60-70 miles, hybrid and auto is proven here to be perfect.

It's gotten to the point that for my 20 mile round trip each morning (kids to school, parent back home), I don't even bother with Pure mode. I just leave it in hybrid and set the round trip destination. Yes, setting a round trip is annoying with AAOS, but it gets me to the school and back, including a pretty big uphill drive in one direction, with about 15 miles left on the battery and almost no gas consumption based on the gas usage over the last month. The car assumes that you will be able to recharge when you get to the last destination, so if the total distance (and hill, speed, traffic calculations) say it can do it on all battery, it will try to.

I also almost always drive in B mode. I don't know if this actually is better for regenerative braking, but I sure do like the generally 1 petal driving.

Here's our last 574 miles, which has used just under 1/2 tank of gas based on the gauge. It calculated 71.1mpg, and with a 18.8 gallon tank that's just over 1/2 full, the calculation sounds right 574 / 8 or so. Now, a bunch of this driving is the 20 mile round trip to school each day, almost all on battery, and then we have enough time to fully recharge before being out and about, and the rest of the trips are mostly short. This includes either 2 or 3 70 mile round trips.

View attachment 189119

I don't use the maps much but how do I set it so that it automatically uses the modes that the computer siggests? I've always just drove in pure mode first until the battery dies. Here's a shot of my mpg. We've had it for about 4 weeks now and haven't filled the gas at all yet.

 

@Dondraper That's some great MPG! Low average speed though, so I suspect you're not doing much highway driving which is definitely less efficient than around town with ample battery.

Once you set a destination in Maps, battery usage is controlled automatically, at least in Hybrid / Auto. I get this waypoint->waypoint icon, which is the indication that the route is being used to have the battery be used most efficiently. I believe if you have it in hold or (gasp) charge, that's a different story.

There's a lot about this new car that has really upset me, but this functionality is truly outstanding.

 

Keep some miles to use in destination city. This is the only thing that matters.
In hybrid mode the engine noise is lower than pure mode so I prefer to it.

 

I followed the same advice today, D for highway driving and B for city driving or stop and go freeway driving while taking a 200 mile trip. Ended up with 30.5mpg for a 211 drive. The first 80 miles were at 75mph so I'm sure I could have done better if I actually went slower. While not bad, it's significantly better then the B6 XC90 I had as a loaner for a few weeks.

 

That’s on par with what I’ve gotten. I typically get 30, wife somehow manages 32. Just fine with me for driving a 3 row 400-450hp suv.

 

Does anyone have any insight on how the car gets the ICE warmed up if you’re on the highway and ICE hasn’t kicked in yet? Let’s say you’re going on a long trip on a frigid winter morning and you’re in hybrid mode, it will get you on the highway on battery alone. So driving now 70mph I’d be reluctant to switch to Hold thinking that’s too fast for a cold engine. I think there is something built in to prepare it but since I don’t know for sure I try to avoid this scenario. So long trip, winter, cold.. I start the car in AWD so the engine warms up a bit, switch to hold + hybrid once on the road, and only switch to auto closer to destination. I’d rather not have to do it but haven’t seen any info about this. The manual mentions turbo engine should be warmed up a bit and not driven aggressively when cold.

 

Yep, agreed.
I always try to "prestart" both my PHEVs when I know the engine will be needed sooner or later. Either hit "Charge/Power/B1..." something like the in the Volvo, to cause engine to start (B1 is easiest, them back up and down to B). I do that as I approach a red light, or a long downhill or something so the engine will run, but not engage for a bit.
My Lincoln Aviator Grand Touring PHEV is setup differently with EV and ICE both going through the entire drivetrain, but the ICE acts the same way, if started it will run for a minute or two before shutting down.

 

While in general I agree with the sentiment that it's not great to cold-start an engine right on the highway, remember that these cars are pretty smart with regard to power distribution.

If your engine is cold and you accelerate onto the highway, when the ICE kicks in, it isn't suddenly taking over the entire load of the power demand. The electric motor is still providing some input, which drastically reduces wear on the engine. I believe the power output of the ICE is also limited until reaching full temperature.

It can also be argued that these little increases in potential wear by cold starts are mostly, if not completely, offset by the overall fewer miles/hours the engines get in city driving, where stop & go does a number on the drivetrain. All to say... Don't overthink it too much.

 

Same here, I was worried the same in my first few months of ownership.

So I did a test, and measured the engine coolant temp real time via OBD. I couldn't find an engine oil temp sensor output so I assumed a hot engine would equate a hot coolant.

At an ambient temperature of 77F, forcing to ICE to come on from, it took 20-30 mins to get the coolant to 90ish Celsius. Comparing to the 1st gen XC90, I don't recall the engine taking this long to reach 90+C. After thinking it through, it's not worth the hassle and the T8 is just a different beast from your normal ICE. And reading some more that may be the reason the Volvo engineers recommended the T8 to use a very low viscosity oil.

 

Oh one more question! I just discovered the "charge" feature, does it affect mpg at all when it's in charge mode? I was able to gain about 10 miles of range while in the highway in charge mode. Saved it for the city driving.

 

Using Charge does hit MPG and generally isn't efficient to use. Usually best to use steady on the highway if you really want the electric miles in the city. I'd say it's still generally better to just ration the battery where it makes sense (either optimized navigation or manual Hold).

 

For a year I was making consistent trips from Atlanta to Chattanooga. 2019 S90T8. I used Pure to get out of ATL, which used pretty much all 21 miles. I would switch to D mode until I was travelling smoothly on I75 north. I would kick in the charger until it was full, then switch to Hold, still in D mode. Once I got to chattanooga I switched to Pure/B mode again for the last bit of city miles. Sure it's manual but it worked great for getting me there with enough electrons to drive to my parents house. Also, in my mind, the last 20 miles on electric lets the super/turbo cool down so I don't just get there and park. Yes I know it's got 55 fans in it that come on in the driveway, but why not use nature to cool it down while I drive to their house. I could charge in the driveway while I visited, then same thing home. 125 miles each way. Using D on the highway doesn't regen as much, but doesn't drag the car down as much either, causing you to re-accelerate. Just how I managed it.

 

What kind of MPG where you getting with your s90 on these drives?

 

Hey guys I have a 2023 T8, we usually drive in Pure mode for work commutes and errands. I never really drove it in "hybrid mode" when the battery was charged. It goes into"hybrid" when the battery is dead but that's just basically all gasoline consumption IMO.

What do you guys think will get the best fuel consumption for a road trip? Should I drive in Pure until battery runs out and rely on ICE engine after that or start with "hybrid mode" throughout the whole drive? Thank you for any advice you may have!

General rule for all PHEVs: drive in all-electric mode (when you can) at speeds < 40 mph; drive in "Hybrid Hold" mode at speeds > 50 mph. When you're close to home and don't need to continue driving the car until it's charged again, drive in all-electric mode if the range is sufficient for highway-speed driving.

No, don't drive it at highway speeds in "Pure" mode until the traction battery is depleted. I rarely ever see my traction battery hit zero, even on long road trips, because I manage the traction battery to have it available when driving in stop-and-go traffic at slow speeds (which is when you don't want the ICE coming on). On long road trips where I'm not charging overnight, I will use the "Charge" function to get the traction battery half-filled up again, for this same reason (i.e., it's crappy driving a vehicle with the ICE coming on and going off constantly in stop-and-go traffic). Yes, gas mileage is reduced when you charge the traction battery via the ICE, but not all that much (i.e., the trade-off in using the ICE so much in stop-and-go traffic doesn't save much gasoline over charging the traction battery and doing all/most of your stop-and-go driving in electric-only); plus, the traction battery charges much faster off the ICE than it does from a wall plug. A big key is to stay in "B" (one-pedal) driving all the time whenever you need to be braking much (i.e., always when in "Pure" mode), because it adds a lot of extra regen to charge the battery pack. I usually stay in one-pedal driving mode even at highway speeds and with ACC on, but not always.

(Also, I think that if you drive in "Power" mode when driving at highway speeds, our Volvo Extended Range PHEVs behave as Porsche E-Hybrids do -- namely, that it charges the battery pack "automatically" at a rapid rate. But I have not really tested this yet -- plan to do so on my next long road trip.)

 

General rule for all PHEVs: drive in all-electric mode (when you can) at speeds < 40 mph; drive in "Hybrid Hold" mode at speeds > 50 mph. When you're close to home and don't need to continue driving the car until it's charged again, drive in all-electric mode if the range is sufficient for highway-speed driving.

No, don't drive it at highway speeds in "Pure" mode until the traction battery is depleted. ...

(Also, I think that if you drive in "Power" mode when driving at highway speeds, our Volvo Extended Range PHEVs behave as Porsche E-Hybrids do -- namely, that it charges the battery pack "automatically" at a rapid rate. But I have not really tested this yet -- plan to do so on my next long road trip.)

I typically drive in Pure ALL the time, but use "Hold" on the highway. Probably not much different than Hold in the normal "Hybrid" with temps set more moderate.
And yes, in "Power" it does use the ISG to generate when not hitting the gas, and in light traffic/downhills, you can actually see in increase in charge in Power. But as soon as you get on it, it drops fast!

 

So I took the same trip again however I tried a little change. Whenever I was on the freeway I selected Power and hold (for the battery). I reserved the battery for the city driving. Turns out I averaged a bit better at 33mpg over 251 miles.

 

Were you able to recharge the battery before the trip home or was this 251 round trip? I got something similar on one leg of a road trip but where I was, i couldn’t recharge before the trip home and was only able to do 27ish if I recall

 

I’m getting ready for a drive. I don’t use the Sensus gps. I use Waze. Obviously I can’t run both at the same time. If I know exactly where I’m going, what route I want to take (which very often varies from what Sensus would say as it’s not as efficient as Waze),etc., and am therefore willing to forego Waze and plug the destination into Sensus. Questions:

To gain full fuel / electric efficiency, should I be in Pure mode once starting the Sensus to my destination, or should I be in Hybrid?

Do I need to follow the way Sensus is telling me to go in order to gain those efficiencies or can I take the way I know is better and let Sensus redirect me, and I will still get the same efficiencies?

Thank you in advance!

 

It is fairly straightforward, when you KNOW you must burn gas, burn it at your best. Say on a trip 80 miles or more up into the hundreds/thousands of miles without charging. The EV is just bonus on top, so when you know that the gasoline is at its best (constant speeds, higher gears...) use it then, hit hold and burn gas as efficiently as possible. Save the EV for when you know gasoline is going to be wasted (stop and go, slow traffic, speeds under say 35MPH...)
That alone will keep you deep into the upper 30sMPG range.
I've never got under 30MPG, typically 35ish on long trips (several tanks of fuel without charging inbetween) when I can choose to drive moderately. My best was a hair over 40MPG over 840 miles without charging.

 

I would say that you should set the destinations on Google maps with all stops until it is charged and you will see beside the battery a little map icon. The car plans the use of the electric as efficiently as possible for the drive.

 

Yes, absolutely.

• Google Maps is a must vs another mapping app. The newly released Waze for AAOS doesn't have this functionality.
• And this is even more reason for Volvo/Google to work together to get easier route creation on the head unit. Currently, the only way I know to get a round trip, you need to start nav with your starting point as the destination. Then you need to add stops by saying "Add a stop" in reverse order. And if you have a frequent round trip that you want to do this for (like a regular commute to work, taking the kids to school, etc), there is no way to save the route. See Discussion Here

 

There was a question posted above that I never really saw answered. I have a 2021 T8 Recharge, so Sensus with the route efficiency power optimization feature. If I put my workplace as a destination, do I HAVE to follow the route Sensus suggests to optimize efficiency or will it adjust on the fly to the best of its ability? I consider my knowledge of local traffic patterns far superior to Sensus Granted, given my knowledge of the route I tend to just do the hold manually but this would save all the swiping back and forth to/from Hold mode.

 

I use the app all the time when my drive will exceeds my "electric" driving range, but I don't always follow the suggested route and will often deviate from it if I desire. I'm unsure whether the result of doing this is less efficient than the suggested route but I'd guess the difference is likely not substantial. Having said that, when I follow the exact route suggested I'll usually end up pulling into my destination with the battery range very close to zero, whereas if I use my route I'll likely run out of battery earlier.