Volvo V60 T8 Twin Engine 2019 UK first drive

The V60 T8 Twin Engine is, to these eyes, an extremely attractive family car wrapped around the most powerful and sophisticated powertrain Volvo currently offers (£140,000 Polestar 1 notwithstanding). As denoted by the 'T8' moniker, it's also a plug-in hybrid, with a real-world electric range of around 25 miles. 

A ‘Polestar Engineered’ version with Brembo brakes, adjustable Öhlins dampers and sharper handling exists and will shortly arrive in the UK with an even greater sense of anonymous cool, though we’re yet to sample that car and at nearly £60,000 it is sure to be a rare sight. 

Even at £50,905, the V60 T8 Twin Engine is hardly cheap, and costs almost exactly what you’ll pay for the V6-engined Mercedes-AMG C43 Estate. It’s a clique that also includes the latest Audi S4 Avant, with its ultra-smooth mild-hybrid V6 turbodiesel, and the BMW M340i xDrive Touring, whose new 369bhp straight six is the best of the lot. 

The upshot is this: only with Volvo do you get less than six cylinders for your circa-380bhp, fifty-grand estate, though the V60 T8 Twin Engine has the environmentally friendly USP of being the only one capable of pure-electric running. Depending on your priorities, already you'll be either repelled or enticed by the concept.  

The powertrain uses a transversely mounted 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol both turbocharged and supercharged to drive the front wheels. With no central coupling, the rear axle is driven by an electric motor, with the 11.6kWh battery (larger than previous T8 interactions) laying along the spine of the chassis but well within the wheelbase. As such, the standard Volvo V60's impressive 529 litres of boot space is undiminished.

This being a contemporary Volvo, and particularly one of high specification, the V60 T8 gets a comfortingly high-sided but spacious cabin of soft leathers, contrast stitching and artful metal trim. If you had to drive the length of the country this evening, with seats like these there’d be scant cause for complaint, and there’s also absolutely no pretension concerning what the V60 T8’s German rivals would term ‘sportiness’. Which is quite refreshing.     

But the cabin is a bellwether for the dynamics. With the twin-charged engine and electric motor together delivering 381bhp and a heap of torque, the T8 moves well for a car weighing more than two tonnes but it doesn’t relish corners, changing direction in composed but disinterested fashion. And except for a token improvement in balance, it makes little difference whether the electric rear axle is moving under its own power or not. What you’re left with is a very quick estate whose steering is a touch numb, whose body control is too relaxed and whose weight is simply too present to ever let it get under the driver’s skin.