2024 Volvo S60 T8 Recharge Review: Muscle Car Meets Swedish Prius

Volvo’s plug-in hybrid powertrain gives the S60 the best of both worlds.

Published March 16, 2024

Updated March 17, 2024

Every product is carefully selected by our editors. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more

While electric vehicles may steal the limelight as the Cars of Tomorrow Today, plug-in hybrids are in many ways a better choice for the majority of buyers. The public charging infrastructure remains a patchwork of buggy stations, varied plugs and assorted power levels, making long trips in an EV an irritating endeavor; PHEVs, meanwhile, are as easy to take across the country as any fuel-drinking car. Yet for daily tasks, PHEVs can run errands and handle commuting without burning any gas at all — and their smaller batteries (when compared to EVs) mean they’re easier to charge at home without specialized infrastructure.

From at least one perspective, they’re also better for the environment in terms of their wide-ranging effects. Given the average American drives around 40 miles or less a day, the components of, say, the 77-kWh battery of a Hyundai Ioniq 5 could instead be spread across five PHEVs, all five of which would use the same amount of gas — that is to say, zero — five-sevenths of the time. (This is effectively the argument Toyota has been making, and one Ford is coming around to.)

Still, because EVs are the new hotness, they suck up the limelight and the R&D budgets alike — leaving the PHEVs, in large part, as unsung heroes, underappreciated supporting players in the building of our more-efficient future. So when the chance arose to try out Volvo’s plug-in hybrid S60 T8 Recharge, given additional power and range for the 2023 model year, we leapt at it.

2024 Volvo S60 T8 Recharge: What We Think

The S60 T8 Recharge hits the sweet spot in terms of combining electric-powered driving for daily tasks and gasoline-powered long-distance travel. While it may feel a bit dated in some ways, and it’s not likely to excite driving enthusiasts when the road turns twisty, it combines ample zero-emissions range with muscle car-like power and all-wheel-drive in a clean, simple design with ample room inside at a reasonable price for what it delivers. Now if only we could get this same setup in a station wagon for the same price…

The T8 Recharge offers great electric range

The EPA claims this PHEV Volvo can travel 41 miles just on its lithium-ion battery alone, and after logging 800 miles behind the wheel, I can vouch for that. Even driving briskly, I was able to knock out close to 40 miles on battery power before the inline-four came to life to take over propulsion duties. And while the 143 horses of the electric motor don’t sound like much, they’re more than enough to accelerate the way the average driver does, especially since the 228 lb-ft of torque comes on with the usual golf cart immediacy of EVs.

And once the battery is effectively drained (like just about all PHEVs, it maintains a slight reserve even when “empty” to provide electrons to the motor when you floor it), the S60 still manages to rack up decent gas mileage. Over the course of a 350-mile road trip involving plenty of hills and high speeds, I saw 37 mpg at the end of it. Granted, again, the first tenth of that was spent without using any gas at all, but the net effect remains: impressive economy and range. You could drive from Manhattan to Toledo on a single tank, if you were so tempted.

While this Volvo doesn’t offer fast-charging capability, it doesn’t really need it. With a Level 2 charger, you can recharge its 14.9-kWh battery in five hours. And using just a household outlet, I was able to suck up around 30 miles of range in about 12 hours. Depending on your driving habits, you could well be able to log most trips on electric power without even having to install any new electrical equipment in your garage or house. (That said, a Level 2 charger can be a fairly affordable upgrade if you’re thinking about potentially adding an electric car in the future.)

… and it packs plenty of oomph with gas and electric power combined

Put the gas engine and the electric motor together, and the S60 T8 Recharge pumps out a sum total of 456 horsepower and 523 lb-ft. That’s enough to send the T8 Recharge from 0-60 mph in 4.1 seconds, according to Car and Driver.

To be sure you always make the most of that combined output, take the drive mode selector and crank it up past Pure (EV-first) and Hybrid (self-explanatory) to Power, which engages both gas and electric motors together and tells them it’s time to play. So enabled, the S68 T8 leaps forward with catlike zeal at just about any speed from a stop to a highway-velocity roll. It’s much more intoxicating than you’d expect for, well, a Volvo.

The S60’s interior is pleasant, but growing dated

When the current generation of Volvos launched back in 2015 with the XC90, the interior was a revelation: a clean, elegant space with minimalist buttons, big clear screens and controls of crystal and knurled metal. But that was eight years back — two presidents and 18 iPhones ago. (Seriously, count it.) By 2023, the standards for automotive interiors have changed quite a bit, especially in terms of technology.

The tablet-style, Google Maps / Assistant / Play-equipped infotainment screen that seemed groundbreaking is laggy by modern standards, with a fairly confusing menu layout and tiny buttons that are hard to hit when driving. The all-glass instrument panel does little to make use of its ample display area; most of it remains black while in operation. And the crystal shift knob and knurled drive mode selector still look great, but neither one’s operation is all that intuitive; the former requires two dedicated nudges to go from D to R or back again, while the latter sits at an awkward angle that makes it hard to adjust.

The clean Scandinavian design, however, has aged nicely. The all-black-everything of my test car (equipped with, you guessed it, the Black Edition package) isn’t as flattering as some of the other, more hygge colorways and materials available. (The “Blond City Weave Textile in Blond interior” and its tweed-inspired cloth may be the most underrated car interior spec on sale today.) And while the 1,410-watt Bowers & Wilkins stereo may not seem as magical as it did nearly a decade ago — the in-car audio system has moved a long way since then — it’s still fun to toggle between stage modes, making the NPR hosts sound alternately like you’re in the sound booth with them and they’re performing in a concert hall.

The S60 also comes in wagon form, but you’ll pay for the two-box PHEV

Volvo being Volvo, the S60 also offers a station wagon twin — called, obviously, V60. It’s the same car from the B-pillar forwards, but from there back, the V60 offers more headroom for second-row occupants and significantly more cargo space — 22.5 cubic feet, versus 11.6 for the S60. (It also, to my eyes, looks even better, but that’s just me.)

However, here in America, opting for a non-Cross Country V60 means you have to opt for the Polestar Engineered version, which offers a more performance-oriented suspension and other tweaks to sharpen up the package. It doesn’t quite turn it into an AMG rival, but it comes as close as you’re liable to get from Volvo. Unfortunately, it also comes with a heftier price tag; while the S60 T8 can be yours for $53,045, the V60 Polestar Engineered will run you at least $72,545.

The T8 Recharge powertrain might be even better suited to the S90

After a week with the S60 T8, I was surprised how impressed I was with it … but it also left me wondering if the Recharge PHEV system might be a better match for the S60’s larger brother, the S90. The S90 offers more room, especially in back — it’s one of the few true full-size sedans you can buy these days, offering similar space to the likes of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class — yet with a starting price of about $67,000, it’s almost reasonably priced in this era when the average new car is selling for around $50K.

Alternatives to the Volvo S60 T8 Recharge

The luxury plug-in hybrid cars space has relatively few contenders floating about. BMW offers PHEV versions of the 3 Series and 5 Series in the forms of the 330e and 530e, which amount to the only real direct foes; the S60 straddles roughly between them in size and price, banking closer to the 5er in wheelbase but alongside the 3er in cost.

If you’re not into a BMW or a Volvo, however, your options are basically to spend a lot more for something like the Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid or Mercedes-Benz S 580e 4Matic (or a lot more for the Bentley Flying Spur Hybrid), or to join the SUV pod people and go for something like a Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring or Lexus NX 450h+.

Volvo S60 Recharge

The S60 is Volvo’s midsize sedan. It’s twinned with the V60 station wagon, and offers a choice of mild hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrains. A revised PHEV system for the 2023 model year brought added power and range.

Specs

Powertrain	2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four + electric motor; 14.-9-kWh battery; eight-speed automatic; all-wheel-drive
Horsepower (combined)	455
Torque (combined)	523
EPA Fuel Economy	30 city, 33 highway; 74 mpg-e combined gas + electric
Seats	5