We have received enquiries recently from clients interested in leasing a Volvo V60 estate diesel electric plug -in hybrid. There is such a car but it will not go on sale until next year. As yet Volvo hasn’t announced any prices and until the on the road price is known, contract hire prices can’t be calculated. We suspect however that this vehicle is going to be expensive

The new car will use Volvo ’s 2.4 Litre turbo diesel engine, which is a bit confusing because Volvo recently announced that in future they will only be using four cylinder 2.0 Litre engines. It is going to be very difficult to provide accurate fuel consumption and CO2 emission figures for this type of vehicle, because it will all depend how it is driven; on a charge from the mains, or using the diesel engine to charge the battery? The latter will make the fuel consumption higher.

It still requires fuel to generate the electricity to recharge the vehicle and some people seem to be forgetting this. In any event there are a lot of assumptions being made when it comes to working out how much these vehicles are helping the environment. Volvo says this vehicle will be 20% more efficient than a standard diesel and can be re-charged in 4.5 hours.

These various different types of electric vehicles will be welcome in city areas because it will reduce pollution in inner city areas. We must not forget however that whilst pollution for these areas will reduce it will increase for those who live in the vicinity of power stations; as it is 32% of the pollution in the UK comes from electricity generation and the extra requirement to fuel electric vehicles will only serve to increase this figure.

For those who don’t want to wait for the new Volvo diesel/electric hybrid, you can lease aVolvo V60 Estate Diesel, this is an excellent vehicle available for just £302 plus Vat per month.