XC90 models and MPGs

[Smeggy]

Hello all

I’d like to know the real world MPGs for the various models but I can’t find a thread on it in here. Are my searching skills somewhat wanting or can anyone advise me what I’d expect to get on the non-electric versions?

Is the B5(D) the best? I just asked a lady parking here outside and she told me mid-20s on hers (petrol) which has scared me off that engine

Many thanks

[CanaryYellow]

The answer to that is going to be usage dependent.

Lots of very short journeys, the T8 is going to win by miles (noting you're not interested in the plug in hybrid). Lots of very long journeys, the B5D will perform the best.

I'd choose one based on how you will use it, rather than the MPG. If you're going to be doing 7 - 8k per year, mixture of short and long journeys, I'd guess you'd get about 8 - 10 mpg better on the B5D than the B5P.

That's maybe £400/500 for a year. In my opinion that's not very much in the context of the overall cost of the vehicle, factoring in insurance, maintenance, depreciation.

If however, it's very important to you, then yes, B5D will be most economical (subject to comments above re T8).

I went for a B5P as I mostly drive around town, with occasional longer journeys. Petrol just seemed the right choice for me.

[Smeggy]

Thank you that is very helpful and I appreciate your comments

I thought PHEV would work well but when I looked at charging costs it appeared to be not dissimilar to ICE fuel. Annoyingly a cheap night tariff comes with an increased day tariff it seems

Hmm food for thought though. I’ve usually had relatively frugal cars so diving into a heavy and thirsty SUV is new to me!

[CanaryYellow]

What do you drive at the moment?

I came out of a BMW 330D and was not keen on switching to a 4 cylinder diesel. I like how quiet the B5P is at idle, I would have found the diesel clatter of the B5D bothersome. For (many/most) others, they probably wouldn't care about that, or even notice.

It's all a very personal thing. With MPG, if knowing that the B5P is a bit thirstier than the B5D would bother you and put you off using the car or your enjoyment of it, then you know the B5D is the answer.

In the end, there isn't really a cheap way to own and run a new-ish XC90. Get the one you'll enjoy the most, even if that reason is because the MPG is a bit better

EDIT: Just to add, I've had over 40 mpg out of the B5P on a long run on the motorway at steady speeds (c. 60mph - 65mph) due to traffic. Normally on a long run its mid to high 30s. Shorter runs, on a mix of b roads and town would be mid 20s. Very short journeys (1 - 2 miles) around town might drop below 20 to c17 mpg or so. Hopefully that gives you a reasonable guide - if you've got an extremely light or heavy right foot, then it all changes

[MK09]

On my XC90 B5D R Design, I’d get around late 20s to early 30s in town driving, and low 40 to mid 40s on steady motorway driving (around 70mph).

[Smeggy]

I have a Diesel Audi TT (which does 50+mpg long term average!) but need a 7-seater family car too. The wife and kids are fed up with me slamming them in the boot so it's down to a Kodiaq or a XC90

Yes it's amazing how much mpg varies with driving style, like when the gauge flashed 5 miles left the other day and it was...um more than 5 miles to the petrol station and i drove like a granny to ensure i made it

I guess with such a heavy beast the laws of physics prevent large fuel costs so i'll just have to suck that up, but if i can soften the blow with engine choice that'd be great

I'm finding your reference info very helpful thanks guys. I also stumbled across www.spritmonitor.de just now which gives lots of info w.r.t. different models

[sandys]

Originally Posted by Smeggy

I thought PHEV would work well but when I looked at charging costs it appeared to be not dissimilar to ICE fuel. Annoyingly a cheap night tariff comes with an increased day tariff it seems

When I first got my PHEV we were well into the energy crisis and this was very much the case, I had a cheap lock in and it was beneficial for me to stay on my day tariff, this has changed a lot now though and things like Octopus Intelligent go etc, only bump the day rate by a couple of p rather than the 20 odd it was back then, so if you haven't looked for a while it'd be worth re-examining. With the 18.8kw cars you'd be looking at 30-40 miles range for little over a quid of electric putting you the 100-200mpg ballpark based on fuel cost versus petrol, even if you were fueling on a high day rate like 26p a unit that still be in the 45-60mpg range in stop start city traffic.

If you can charge at home and can fit your mileage mostly in the PHEV windows you'll be quids in, especially if you have to do any city driving where a big car on petrol/diesel will be very inefficient. Of course everything is relative, my PHEV on petrol with no charge is as efficient and the old 4x4 diesel it replaced so it was a win for me regardless vene if I didn't charge as petrol was cheaper.

[Discoman]

It's an impossible question as it depends on use. My T5 can do 20mpg when being thrashed or high thirties on a cruise. Diesel will be better and more than likely compensate for the extra cost per litre. Plug in hybrid mpg is hard to calculate because the trip computer does not log the impact of electric only running so effectively overreads.

[sandys]

Originally Posted by Discoman

Plug in hybrid mpg is hard to calculate because the trip computer does not log the impact of electric only running so effectively overreads.

Easy to calculate really, the mpg is bang on for fuel used and as you can only put ~16k-17w of electric in if not preconditioning, that gets you the cost for that which you can just add to your fuel used to work out an equivalent mpg.

I even attached a spreadsheet in a different post in here If anyone was as sad as me and wanted to calculate it based on cost and are too lazy for mental arithmetic

But you could just simply approximate by adding a litre to the fuel when doing costing/mpg, you'd be over estimating the electric cost but good ball park.

[Javert1969]

Originally Posted by Smeggy

Thank you that is very helpful and I appreciate your comments

I thought PHEV would work well but when I looked at charging costs it appeared to be not dissimilar to ICE fuel. Annoyingly a cheap night tariff comes with an increased day tariff it seems

Hmm food for thought though. I’ve usually had relatively frugal cars so diving into a heavy and thirsty SUV is new to me!

Have you looked at this recently and checked your calculations? As a general rule of thumb, using electricity from home to charge an EV or PHEV is a lot cheaper than putting petrol in there, even if you are not on a time of use tariff.

Once you are on a time of use tariff, you also should keep in mind that charging the car will probably be a significan portion of your electric usage and therefore 1p or 2p extra on the daytime rate is still going to work in general, unless you have extreme high usage in the day.

Additionally, if feeling adventurous you could look at tariffs based on daily or hourly rates like Octopus Tracker or Agile. This all depends on your usage patterns not just for the EV but for other items as well.