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2019 Volvo S60 T8 review: flawed Swede is still a refreshing alternative to German performance saloons

The 500lb gorilla here is, of course, BMW's all-new 3-series being launched this autumn. Sure, not everyone wants a propellor badge on the bonnet and there is certainly a cadre of folk still mourning the loss of Saab, but this doesn't necessarily make up a business case for a non-German saloon.

Many car manufacturers have posited an alternative premium executive saloon to rival the market-leading 3-series and its close rivals, Audi's A4 and Mercedes-Benz's C-class, but so far none has made it beyond the lower slopes.

So is it time for Volvo to have (another) go at this market with the third-generation S60? Just to remind you here, the original S60, launched in 2000, was the car that Volvo was so frightened would bury the company that it sold itself to Ford, whereupon the US giant nicked the chassis, called it D3 and put it underneath the Taurus, the 500, the Lincoln MKS and many other quite forgettable cars.

That Volvo had an extraordinarily long life, only being replaced in 2010 by the Mk2 S60, which introduced the first plug-in electric hybrid (PHEV) model and the Polestar tuning concept. It's hardly pulled up trees, though; just 1,276 were sold in the UK last year.

Now we have the third generation S60 and it's the first Volvo to be built in America, at the company's new plant in Charleston, South Carolina. It's also the sixth and last car to be spun off the company's scaleable platform architecture (SPA), also used by the XC60 and XC90 as well as the S and V 90 and the V60 estate.

2019 Volvo S60 T8 'Engineered by Polestar' - AE driven October 2018
Familiar yet different: the interior is recognisably Volvo but it's lifted by contrast stitching and metal trim on the centre console. It’s well designed and made, and pleasant to the touch

Built only for 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engines and/or a plug-in electric hybrid, the S60 is also the first Volvo to be offered without a diesel option although Volvo is gaming the system here, since this saloon will sell strongest in markets such as America and China, which like a boot and don't much care for diesel.

So there's the SPA mix of petrols on offer with the T4 and 248bhp/258lb ft T5 turbo petrol models definitely coming over to the UK and the mad, bad T8 supercharged and turbocharged Twin Engine plug-in hybrid version also definitely coming, but Volvo's marketers are still stroking their beards over whether to import the non-hybrid T6 supercharged and turbocharged four-wheel drive model.

And it was the T8 in the even more extreme “Engineered By Polestar” trim which we drove on the launch. Engineered by who? Well, that's an issue, since few people have heard of Polestar, Volvo's in-house tuning specialist - it's not built up a body of work and has all the profile of a secret agent. Even Volvo engineers admit they are trying to create a legend for refinement and power for the Polestar which isn't matched by its previous performance variants.

So in time-honoured fashion we travelled half way around the world to drive the new S60 in the least popular derivative and least popular trim. The T8 is a performance hybrid and has some startling numbers to back that up. At its heart is the twin-blown petrol engine punching out 318bhp and 317lb ft, with a rear-mounted AC motor adding another 65bhp and 177lb ft, which makes a fairly impressive total system output of 405bhp/494lb ft.

2019 Volvo S60 T8 'Engineered by Polestar' - AE driven October 2018
The S60 is a good looking car, but this top-of-the-range T8 looks even more handsome thanks to the large wheels and 35-profile tyres

That 500lb ft of maximum torque is super-saloon territory, but then you look at the extra gubbins this car is carrying to boost a 2.0-litre four-cylinder to that sort of power and the weight adds up.

There's the 34kg electric motor and the 113kg, 10.4kWh lithium-ion battery that runs along the spine of the car, along with the cooling, inverter and control electronics. The Eaton supercharger is a heavy old unit and so is the turbo and the electric air-conditioning unit. In all, this car weighs 2,020kg.

The S60 is a good looking car anyway, but this version is particularly handsome, especially in the mean black of the launch cars and the 20-inch Pirelli P Zero tyres with a 35 per cent aspect ratio; think rubber bands stretched around unfeasibly large alloy wheels. There's the standard car's MacPherson-strut front suspension and a multi-link rear with a transverse composite leaf spring, but it is lowered by 12mm and the spring rates are gently increased - damping is courtesy of Swedish specialist Öhlins.

The interior is trimmed to the top-model Inscription level, with added go-faster stitching and delightful metal trim on the centre console. It’s nicely made, with pleasant-feeling materials and an attractive design that apes that of the other four SPA models.

2019 Volvo S60 T8 'Engineered by Polestar' - AE driven October 2018
Polestar versions get nifty yellow seatbelts. However, the heavily bolstered front seats aren't as comfortable as the standard items

In the centre is the distinctive 9-inch portrait touchscreen, which can be configured to show entertainment, phone settings, navigation instructions and heater controls. It replaces a lot of conventional buttons, rather too many in fact, and working your way through it is complex and occasionally cumbersome; it takes three button pushes to get the air recirculating function, for example, and five to adjust the sound controls for the first rate (though expensive) Bower and Wilkins stereo.

Safety is the same as that on other big Volvos, so city and high-speed automatic brake activation is standard along with steering mitigation and pedestrian, cyclist and large-animal recognition software. Braking mitigation has been further uprated to include a head-on impact function, which brakes hard if it predicts such an awful eventuality. Not all of it is standard, however, with blind-spot information system including steering assist, cross-traffic alert and rear-collision mitigation costing £500.

The cabin is large, with a decent amount of storage space around the seats, though the sports seats in the Polestar version aren't as comfortable as the standard items and make access and egress cumbersome. Even in the standard car, the driver's seat is mounted too high and the sports seats seem to emphasise this.

Get underway and the suspension feel stiff and unyielding, tipping into potholes, porpoising along between concrete road sections and following the crowning. I’ve driven worse, but in England this is going to be busy and the only way you’re going to be able to slacken it is to open the bonnet and manually back off the Ohlins dampers - at the rear, you've got to get down on your knees to reach the top of the damper units.  

2019 Volvo S60 T8 'Engineered by Polestar' - AE driven October 2018
The rear-mounted electric motor doesn't eat into boot space but it, along with the battery plus the turbo and supercharging hardware, add weight

This would be fine in a car destined to head off for a trackday every summer weekend, but that’s not the idea with the Volvo, which will have at least dual purpose. There’s also a slight discrepancy between the steering feel and the suspension feedback. Even with a bracing strut between the front suspension top mountings, and with the driveline and steering effort set in Power mode, the steering feels too leisurely to turn in, though it's accurate and nicely weighted once in the corner.

Up the pace and the chassis is true, planted and grippy. On the right series of roads the T8 has a confidence-inspiring stability and prodigious grip. It's even good fun, though it's not really a competitor to the quickest of the quick saloons; Mercedes-Benz's C63, BMW's M3, Audi's S4 or even Alfa Romeo's Giulia Quadrifoglio or Jaguar's faster XE models.  

And while the driveline is certainly effective, it's mechanically cacophonous and you certainly don't feel as if it's delivering 500lb ft, which should feel slightly thrilled and bruised.

2019 Volvo S60 T8 'Engineered by Polestar' - AE driven October 2018
It's great at speed, with plenty of grip and stability. You might even say it's fun, though it lacks the involvement of some rivals

With monobloc, six-piston Brembo racing calipers at the front, plus regeneration braking from the rear motor, the stopping power is monstrous, although regenerative and friction retardation are poorly matched at low speed and the brake-by-wire system is hard to modulate, as well as grabby. That's a shame, as with 21 miles of electric-only range, the T8 should be a Jekyll and Hyde sort of machine that can cruise silently and smoothly as an EV and then become a yelping speed machine when the petrol engine chimes in.

Per Ola Fuxin, the chassis dynamics chief at Volvo, said: “The essence of what we wanted to do was increased comfort with a more sporting behaviour.”

I think they've failed; the drivetrain has too many parts throwing their effort into the mix to ever be comfortable or seamless, but it's a very honourable failure and in many aspects this deeply flawed super-S60 is quite likeable for all its faults.

THE FACTS

Volvo S60 T8 Engineered by Polestar

TESTED 1,969cc four-cylinder turbocharged and supercharged petrol, plus 10.4kWh lithium-ion battery powering an AC electric motor driving the rear wheels, eight-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive

PRICE/ON SALE approx £55,000/end of 2019 (T5 version in April)

POWER/TORQUE Petrol engine: 318bhp @ 5,800rpm, 317lb ft @ 4,500rpm; electric motor: 65bhp/177lb ft; total system output: 405bhp/494lb ft

EV RANGE 21 miles

RECHARGING TIME 2.5 hours on a household supply

TOP SPEED limited to 155mph

ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 4.7sec

FUEL ECONOMY 113mpg EU Combined (32.2mpg on test)

CO2 EMISSIONS 58g/km

VED £10 first year, £450 next five years, then £140

VERDICT There's too much going on under the bonnet (and the boot) for this car to ever be a super-refined super-cruiser, but despite its flaws the plug-in hybrid S60 T8 offers an alternative to the German hegemony of performance saloons and is quite likeable as a result.

TELEGRAPH RATING Four stars out of five

THE RIVALS (dare to be different)

Skoda Superb, from £20,695

Like all the cars mentioned here, the Superb comes from left field, but it has an almost unsurpassed ride quality, tons of space, a classy interior and, if you order the top model £38,500 Laurin & Klement 2.0TSI 4x4 with the DSG twin-clutch transmission, you'll be in a bargain premium car.

Alfa Romeo Giulia, from £29,800

Refreshingly, the Alfa prioritises driver involvement above all and that means you don't quite get all the expected executive toys and doodads, but you do get a terrific drive and the Giulia is a lovely looking thing. Choose the extraordinary £61,625, 2.9-litre Quadrifoglio version and you're in a super-saloon that few can match.

Peugeot 508, from £25,000

The French refuse to lie down and die in this sector and the 508 is an example of just how good they can be when they put some effort in. It'll be rare, but it looks terrific and drives just as well. Choose the £36,975 First Edition model with the 230PS, 1.6-litre engine and eight-speed auto and you'll believe that Peugeot has got its mojo back.

Jaguar XE, from £31,505

Poor Jaguar, it tried to play against the Germans with an outdated electronics package and some clumsy pricing, but there's lots to like in the XE, particularly the sublime ride and handling and interior design. Choose the £45,640 2.0i4p 300 AWD and you're in a serious all-weather saloon with performance to match.

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