And if you're worried about the thing blowing your home power circuits, then fear not because this i

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53,150 as tested car dealerships near me (includes 5,000 UK govt. grant deduction)
The main issue with buying an electric car - other than the cost of purchase - is range anxiety. The internal combustion age means we don't tend not to plan when it comes to cars. We just jump in and go.
Despite the average person only driving 19 miles each day, many think they're either going to need to make some serious adjustments to how they use a car in order to go electric, or need a second car. But cars like the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid are supposed to offer the best of both worlds: it charges from a plug at your house and then runs off battery power for most of the time when you're close to home, but also gives the capability to drive as far as you want, when you want, thanks to a diesel engine.
But what's a car like this like to live with in the UK? There's a lot of hot air blowing around about electric car dealerships near me and hybrid electric cars today - from both the pro and the con brigades. But it takes real life to show the benefits - and disadvantages - that life with a plug-in car can bring. Has the Volvo V60 got the balance right? Power hybrid semantics
The V60 Plug-in isn't a pure battery electric car like the Tesla Model S. Nor is it a "range extender"  like versions car dealerships near me of the BMW i3 where the electric motor and batteries do all the work, but under certain car dealerships near me circumstances a petrol generator charges the battery back up. Instead, this is what you might term a power hybrid, rather like the BMW i8 .
Up front you've got a V60 D5 - a 215 horsepower, 5-cylinder diesel engine that powers the front wheels. But added to this is a battery pack that sits under the floor of the boot and drives a 70 horsepower electric motor that turns the rear wheels. car dealerships near me The Volvo can use either or both of these power sources depending on which mode you've got it in, what charge remains in the battery and how foot-to-the floor you happen to be driving. Mode dilemmas
The benefit of this setup is that you get an extremely car dealerships near me economical car and a very powerful one rolled into one - although not at the same time. How the V60 Plug-in Hybrid behaves depends on the mode you've got it set in.
There are Pure, Hybrid or Power options which you select via buttons at the base of the console. Pure runs the car primarily on battery power; Hybrid blends car dealerships near me both power sources; while Power runs the diesel motor full-time and throws the electric motor in when needed as an "e-boost".
You can also get the battery to maintain a state of charge, and force both units into action to create car dealerships near me an "AWD" setting which drives all four wheels, for slippery conditions. car dealerships near me Which might all sound rather complicated, just as we highlighted with the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron.
But the reality is that when the battery's fully charged you just press the Pure button on the V60's console (the default mode is Hybrid) car dealerships near me and then drive it on battery power as much as you can. And when you're in a hurry you press Power and can then scare the living daylights out of reps in diesel Audis and BMWs. Plug-in baby
To make the most of the car, you are going to need access car dealerships near me to a plug - either at home or work. No fancy plug, just a simple wall socket will do. But if you've not got one that's within easy reach of the car then quite simply save yourself the bother and go and buy a V60 D5.
Luckily, there's a plug just on the inside wall of our lounge which the V60's 4.5m-long cable was able to reach via an open window. We soon got into a routine: get home at around 7pm each evening, plug the car in via the window, unplug car dealerships near me and close the window at 11pm when we went to bed, then plug in again when we got up in the morning at 6am before leaving car dealerships near me for work at 7am. By which point, the battery was just over three-quarters charged, which was enough to get us to the office and back (19 miles) entirely in electric car dealerships near me mode.
Volvo reckons it should take about six hours to fully charge car dealerships near me the battery from a home plug socket, which our experience bears out. There's a display inside the car to tell you when it'll be fully charged, or you can connect your smartphone and check it remotely that way.
And if you're worried about the thing blowing your home power circuits, then fear not because this is a Volvo after all and the Plug-in Hybrid adheres to a high level of safety standards. The heavy Vatenfall power adaptor unit comes complete with a clever transformer and power-breaker system, which stops the car tripping your house fuses. It didn't bother the ancient electrics in our 1850s house once.
We tested the car for a week and the slight inconvenience of throwing the power lead through a window each night is made up for b