Volvo V90 Recharge T6 AWD R-Design 2020 UK review

What is it?

Having been one of the first to offer plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrains in its saloons, estate cars and SUVs, Volvo lauded an early lead over its mostly German rivals for anyone looking to cut their company car tax and fuel bills with an executive car they could plug into the mains. Gothenburg’s first PHEV offering was fully eight years ago now, though – and plenty has changed since. There’s now a lot of competition for plug-in hybrid fleet business, as well as much greater relative importance placed on those plug-in hybrids by the company car tax system, and model prices have steadily fallen.

So   having first pitched its PHEVs as diesel-electric options, and then as quite highly priced petrol-electric pseudo-performance options, Volvo is finally getting down to brass tacks and making its bigger plug-in options a bit more value oriented. You can now opt for slightly cheaper and less powerful T6 Recharge-badged versions of the V60, XC60 and V90, and both of the ‘V’-prefixed estates will get you access to that highly desirable 10% benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax classification for your next company car. What's it like?

An improvement over Volvo’s comparable T8 hybrids in many ways. To be fair, the V90 T6 Recharge isn’t necessarily a better car than a T8 so much as a better-aimed one; but, to this tester at least, there was no doubt that it ran more quietly and economically in its combustion modes than several T8 Twin Engine Volvo hybrids I’ve driven and set as high a general standard for on-board comfort and isolation as any big Volvo I can remember.

Категория: Автотехника