Both BMW and Volvo came early to the green executive car market, the Germans with the Activehybrid models which were pure hybrids and Volvo with its pioneering plug-ins. But the current 330e and S60 T8 are more similar, both plug-ins with comparable EV ranges.
They are also roughly the same size, but there are enough differences between them to justify a comparison review. The first thing pointed out by DrivingElectric in their video is the powertrains. The 330e makes some 292 horsepower while the T8 version of the S60 boasts 390 hp, even though it too comes with a 2-liter turbo engine.
The gap is mainly due to Volvo adding a supercharger on top of the regular turbocharger to get more internal combustion goodness... or badness, depending on how you look at it. Thus, the 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) sprint times are vastly different - 5.9 seconds for the 330e and 4.6 seconds in the V60 T8.
But what you probably want to know is which is the better EV. On a closed track, the 330e got about 31 miles on battery power alone while the Volvo managed 29 miles. So the BMW is more economical with its electric fuel, and the story is similar if the sedans are driven like hybrids. Over longer journeys, the 330e averaged 40mph while the Volvo did about 35 mpg UK.
We're going to sound a little old-fashioned, but those numbers are kind of disappointing. Ignoring the frugal diesels, you can probably average 35 mpg in a Golf GTI. So the best way to deal with one of these is to charge them frequently and mainly do urban commutes.
Sadly, they're not brilliant at that either, as the ~12 kWh batteries have a maximum charge rate of ~3.7 kW, so you'll need over 3 hours to top them off. That's not brilliant, considering a similarly sized Tesla Model 3 is about the same size.
What's that, you want a normal engine for that range anxiety? Then you'll probably want to check out this drag race too. It ends badly for the BMW, especially when this V60 seems to have the Polestar software tuning as well.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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