Hello Everyone,

Use my 16 XC90 T6 Polestar to pull our 18 ft Pontoon and our 6 Seater Side by Side on the regular... What are other people's Real World MPG while towing? Mine seems to drop SIGNIFICANTLY when towing... Boat/Trailer is about 3,400lbs... SXS/Trailer is about 3,900lbs...

Just looking for others MPG's as some sort of Point of Reference! TIA!!!

Seeing massive MPG drops while towing is pretty normal, especially with turbocharged engines. What MPG do you usually see and what do you get while towing?

 

Normally 22-24 MPG's on non highway commutes to work... Dash shows 23.8... On the highway with the Family usually closer to 26, however when towing, I'm down to 9.7-12.5 usually.

 

I thought 4 cyl engines were supposed to be fuel efficient (and the reason why Volvo chose it in all their vehicles)?!

 

Hah, sounds normal to me. I get 10-11 with my 3.2L 2014 when towing ~2800 lbs. Different engine, sure, but gasoline engines aren't the most efficient while towing. I wouldn't worry too much.

 

Hah, sounds normal to me. I get 10-11 with my 3.2L 2014 when towing ~2800 lbs. Different engine, sure, but gasoline engines aren't the most efficient while towing. I wouldn't worry too much.

Exactly.
This is why diesel engines are so attractive. They'll redline much lower (less NVH) and return stellar fuel economy!
I've secretly fantasized about owning one for decades, but I just don't have the need for one.

 

Sounds about right. My old 2.5T XC90 dropped from like ~18 mpg to around 9 when towing 5500 lbs. As long as it's running right I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Wow, that’s a huge drop. I had a Toyota 4runner and I got 18-19MPG while towing a trailer with 2 motorcycles. Ok that wasn’t 5500lbs.

 

Thanks for some of the responses! Runs just fine, I guess I'm more SHOCKED with an over 60% decrease in MPG just from towing... that makes any "longer" trips far less desirable... my previous vehicle (18 Pacifica Limited) which had a max tow capacity of 3,500 lbs did FAR better than my XC90 sadly

 

I'm very jealous! I have a 2022 T6 Inscription with 2500 miles - my average is 17 mpg and I have been babying the accelerator. During city driving, it goes down to 13-14mpg.

On a good day coasting down the highway with a downhill slope, I'll be lucky to have it hit 22mpg but as soon as I breathe on the pedal, the mileage plummets.

That's driving by myself, not towing anything. I am severely disappointed with the fuel economy - nowhere near what was stated on the sticker

 

I'm very jealous! I have a 2022 T6 Inscription with 2500 miles - my average is 17 mpg and I have been babying the accelerator. During city driving, it goes down to 13-14mpg.

On a good day coasting down the highway with a downhill slope, I'll be lucky to have it hit 22mpg but as soon as I breathe on the pedal, the mileage plummets.

That's driving by myself, not towing anything. I am severely disappointed with the fuel economy - nowhere near what was stated on the sticker

Be patient. My gas mileage started to improve after 10,000 miles. Now I have 24-25MPG on the highway and 19-20MPG in the city. I felt the same as you in the beginning but now I can tell you from experience that the sticker 26 MPG is realistic on the highway. Also, I’m using 36PSI tire pressure.

 

When I tow my boat I drop from about 20-25 to about 11mpg. Boat and trailer are close to 5K lbs and the boat is pretty tall so I imagine it’s got a good bit of wind resistance.

 

Thanks everyone! So, my MPG is not as bad as I thought when towing... I mean it's still less than I was expecting but based on everyone's comments, I'm realistically doing okay...

 

Our 2018 T6 mileage drops way down when towing, even an empty small U-haul trailer. I have the Volvo towing module and my understanding is when trailer is connected it prevents overdrive from engaging.

 

I wonder if the drag factor is more significant than the weight. The angled rear window, for example, is part of the drag (or lack thereof). A big box behind it probably messes the whole thing up. My non-engineer take on it at least.


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Your XC90 T6 can tow, but the fact that it's a 2.0 4cylinder means that it shouldn't be towing excessive weight. Make sure you change your ATF at 50,000 miles and that you're changing your synthetic oil religiously.

 

This is so interesting. I was wondering why our 2018 XC90 T6 and our 2018 GLS550 (V8 engine) got about the same mileage towing, which is 10-12mpg.

We've taken both vehicles on 16-hour road trips across the southwest towing a small European 2-horse trailer loaded with one horse, hay, tack, water etc (probably less than 4000 lbs). The Volvo did great, although on a few sustained climbs it definitely seemed to be losing power. But I was so surprised that the mpg when towing was almost identical betwen the 4 cylinder turbo and a V8 (where the GLS' curb weight is 1,000 pounds more).

The Volvo gets better mileage without towing, of course, but not by as much as you'd think. We still use tow with both (the GLS more now), but I prefer almost everything about the XC90 except the comparative lack of power - if only they made a version with a more powerful engine and slightly higher tow limit...

 

I mean, tow limits are like speed limits. You should probably follow them, but nothing bad will happen if you exceed them by a little bit. I've towed 6k with my P2 XC90 (rated for 5k) and 4500lbs with my P2 XC70 (rated at 3300). Both did just fine. As for more power, Polestar tune (or JB4/TDI/etc piggyback) and driving in Polestar/Dynamic mode would likely help, as would an intercooler upgrade.

 

My XC90 is Polestar Engineered as well as the TDI Tuning Box (Piggyback System) I found that if I leave the tuning box in setting 3 (1-7) and use Polestar Engineered Mode (Replaces Dynamic Mode) while towing, I do get about a 1.5 MPG increase while towing... Non Towing MPG is great in my opinion. Below is a current picture of my drive on the way to work this morning!

 

I'd suspect a tight wrapped cover would really help with economy too. The wind resistance of either a side by side or a pontoon would be horrible.

 

Never thought of a cover for the SXS... Pontoon we usually take the cover off before we travel any long distances, so it doesn't get destroyed driving down the highway... Might not be a bad idea to look into a cover that I can leave on while towing and possibly seeing if there is an option for some sort of cover for the SXS while on the trailer... Never thought of this!