by Anura Guruge
on July 30, 2021
I got an update to this directly from Volvo. Though you will find this, as yet, on the Volvo Website, I was told, with some evidentiary printed documentation, that the ‘mild-hybrid’ electric motor, i.e., the ISG (below), delivers 13hp when acting as a motor. So, the electric motor can add 13hp to the overall HP giving the 2022 XC60 B5 a total of 260hp. OK? So, 10hp more than the ‘old’ T5 — albeit this HP only kicking in when you want acceleration, typically from a standstill.
The above picture of the ‘ISG‘ (which I also used in yesterday’s post) kinds of tells you why this is — if you think about it.
In a ‘Mild-Hybrid‘ you don’t have a big enough motor (or for that matter battery) to drive one set of wheels (let alone two). You have a small motor that kicks in, intermittently, to add a little bit of extra power. The rest of the time, as I explained yesterday, the ISG acts as the car’s alternator. But, it is a BIGGER more power-hungry alternator than what you would get in a non ‘mild-hybrid’. Hence, the drop in HP. Notice that the torque is not changed — since that is what is produced by the internal combustion engine.
From what I have read, mainly from Europe, in the case of the Volvo XC60 the extra mpg of the mild-hybrid, at best, is 3 mpg! Yes, an additional 3 miles per gallon. In my 2021 Volvo XC60, without trying, I am getting 29mpg, per the car’s computer. I am pretty sure I am unlikely to get much more with the XC60 mild-hybrid. So?
This is ONLY a solution that Swedes could have come up with. It is worse than a ‘No-OP’. It is, from what I can see, a ‘Negative-OP’. I am hoping that Volvo proves me wrong. Appears they have. The ISG is supposed to provide an additional 13hp when it kicks in, as a motor, when the vehicle is trying to accelerate.
