Volvo XC60 B4 hybrid review

Volvo's SUVs have played a major role in the brand’s renaissance of recent years.

The original XC90 was a huge hit for the brand and the new one is better in every way. Alongside that the compact XC40 seems to have won virtually every award going. And in between, somewhat overshadowed by its siblings is the XC60, itself a solid player in the world of premium mid-sized SUVs.

Like every other Volvo of recent years, it’s a stylish, spacious and safe machine worthy of its place among the premium models from Germany and Japan.

It’s also one of the models leading the brand’s march to an electrified future. Volvo has committed to making its entire range electrified - either as a pure EV or a hybrid - and every new model will have an electrified option.

All the SUVs are built on platforms that can take full electrification and an XC40 EV is imminent, but alongside that Volvo is turning to hybridisation with both plug-in petrol/electric hybrids and “mild” hybrids like this B4 diesel-electric setup.

The B4 hybrid is what other manufacturers might call a self-charging hybrid, that is one with a relatively small battery that is only charged via the car’s engine and energy recuperation rather than plugging into an external power source.

That means it doesn’t offer driving in pure-electric mode but is designed to reduce consumption and emissions by using the electric motor to ease the demand on the engine. It cuts in and out as required without any driver intervention and is virtually undetectable.

Official WLTP testing puts the B4’s economy at up to 46mpg and emissions at 142-151g/km. In comparison, the entry-level D4 diesel returns up to 48mpg and emits between 129 and 135g/km of CO2. However, that comes without the four-wheel-drive that’s standard in the B4, and doesn’t have the extra weight of the battery.