Know the PHEVs from the BEVs in Volvo’s new energy repertoire

We are constantly on about how brilliant the full electric offerings from Volvo are. And how we are fast barrelling towards 2030, when the company will only be offering these battery powered vehicles.

But there are still many people in South Africa who start to twitch uncontrollably at the mere mention of an electric vehicle.

Knowing one Volvo from the next

I feel some of it is just us humans being resistant to change like always. But I also think that a lot of it has to do with us not really understanding what the manufacturer is saying. The Swedish carmaker uses terminology like ICE, BEV, PHEV, hybrid and mild hybrid. And then leave you to try figure out if the car has an engine or not or where must it be plugged in.

Combinations result in the biggest confusion. Like cars with engines that needs to be plugged in. Or an engine combined with a battery that can be recharged by the engine while driving. Or even worse, a battery to store regenerated energy but not used to drive the car.

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I think you get the point. Just reading about what is on offer and what this means to you when it comes purchasing time, is more than a little confusing. Allow me to try and demystify some of it.

Firstly, you must learn to speak the new energy lingo. The acronyms you need to know are:

ICE (Internal Combustion Engine)

This is your good old-fashioned petrol and diesel-powered vehicle that you fill up at your local garage. They have no battery power or electric motors.

BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle)

This is a vehicle that is driven by an electric motor or two. These electric motors are powered by large capacity batteries that must be charged with a plug at your home or a public charge point. They have no combustion engines.

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PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle)

A vehicle that has a normal combustion engine that works with a smaller capacity battery powered electric motor to add some extra performance. It also offers improved fuel consumption due to the vehicle being able to run only on electricity under certain conditions. The battery must be charged with a plug at your home or a public charge point.

The combustion engine is still filled at your local garage. This is possibly the best combination right now. Around town you can use electricity to commute and on the open road you can travel as far as you want on fuel. No range or Eskom anxiety.

HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle)

This is a vehicle that once again uses a normal combustion engine which works together with the help of batteries and an electric motor. But there is no plugging this vehicle in to charge the batteries. The batteries are charged from the combustion engine or from the energy recuperated from braking or slowing down.

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Mild Hybrid

This is a vehicle that also uses a normal combustion engine in conjunction with a 48V electrical system that features an integrated starter generator (ISG). The ISG acts as both a starter motor and a small self-charging power bank. This takes some of the load off the combustion engine when pulling away. It offers reduced carbon emissions, slightly improved fuel consumption and a little extra oomph on acceleration.

No external charging is required and this system can’t drive the car. It just assists the engine.

Volvo XC40 B3

This finally brings me to my latest drive in a Volvo, the often-misunderstood XC40 B3 entry level mild hybrid offering. It features a 2.0-litre internal combustion turbocharged engine with some 48V power assistance. Now that you know what this means, the rest of what I am about to say will make far more sense in a traditional way.

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This new B-badged model I drove offers 110kW of power and 265Nm of torque running down to the front wheels through a smooth, easy shifting eight-speed automatic gearbox. No plugging in. No charging batteries, just that unseen 48V system providing some assistance. And this assistance resulted in a real-world fuel consumption figure of 8.0-litres per 100km. It has a claimed 0 to 100km/h sprint time of 10 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 180km/h.

One impressive Volvo

The bottom line is, an equivalent BEV will use no fuel. A PHEV and HEV will use less fuel than a mild hybrid. And an ICE vehicle will use more fuel.

The Volvo XC40 B3 is impressive for a full-house premium compact SUV. Pricing starts at R677 700 which includes a five-year/100 000km warranty and five-year/100 000km maintenance plan.