Sunday, December 09, 2018

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 42

We bought the Volvo XC60 T8 on October 28. So far, I am very pleased with the vehicle.

The first tank of gas was November 23 at 1,036 miles. The first thousand miles included a work trip to Marysville and a weekend trip to South Shore Tahoe.

As part of my commute, I have been parking across the street from my work in the morning at a free electric vehicle charger provided by Volta. My commute is just under 30 miles round trip. The SUV is rated at 21 miles all electric. By topping off the battery at the free charger most mornings, my round trip uses very little gas.

Even in the pure mode, the car will turn on the gas engine occasionally. As long as there's juice remaining in the battery, the “pure” mode helps ensure the vehicle stays electric-only and zero-emissions.

I am not crazy about the control that allows you to select the different driving modes, including hybrid, pure, off road, AWD and power. The car always starts in hybrid mode and has to be switched to pure with an odd rocker control.

I am extremely pleased with the Apple Carplay interface to the iPhone. I love being able to get easy access to my podcasts. The Waze interface is fantastic. Being able to listen and then respond to a text messages using Siri is useful.

About my only real complaint at this point is user interface on the technology. There is essentially a touch screen computer in the dashboard. Some of the ways that you interact with the controls seem inconsistent. It will be interesting to see if this gets upgraded and changed over the life of the vehicle. It appears that the technology has the capacity for over-the-air updates.

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