Now, this is a Volvo forum. Volvos are luxury cars. New Volvos are expensive cars. Very few new Volvo buyers, at least in America, are not going to have a place to charge at home, and some 60-65% of Americans with cars have garages. So it’s a moot point to talk about charging problems for the vast majority of new Volvo buyers, seriously. Very few people renting in apartments are going to buy a new Volvo costing > $50k (there aren’t many new Volvos selling for less than that). So, as a Volvo forum, it’s rather absurd to talk about Volvo PHEVs as something that Volvo buyers can’t charge and use as electric vehicles, generally.
I’ve been saying for years — since the late 2010s — that PHEVs will increase in demand before BEVs go mainstream. BEVs might have gone mainstream by 2030 if Trump hadn’t just gotten re-elected, but now it could be closer to 2035-2040 before BEVs become mainstream, at least in America. Most of the people who might buy a BEV by 2025 have already bought one; that spigot is going to dry up for at least the next four years now, as incentives for automakers and buyers regarding BEVs all dry up under Trump & Co. But electric driving is better (and I argue more fun, as a driver) than driving ICEVs; I enjoy driving our PHEVs much more in all-electric mode than with the ICE on. And the big story is that PHEV battery packs and gotten much larger, and their efficiency much better, in the last five years — and will continue to get better in range in the next five years. In my book, a PHEV that gets < 40 miles of all-electric range is not very useful or practical … and Volvo didn’t have useful/practical PHEVs until the current generation with 18-kWh battery packs. Volvo also became the only PHEV automaker (to my knowledge) to have one-pedal driving, and Volvo’s one-pedal driving is absolutely superb — really well engineered and practical and enjoyable to use.
Now, Volvo is stepping back from their rush to go all-BEV by 2030, as are other automakers, and Volvo states that more PHEVs will be in the works — which is a good thing. The biggest thing I want from Volvo is a PHEV Cross Country wagon; their lowered PHEV wagons scrape bottom too much (been there, done that). Many of us prefer wagons to SUVs, but we want raised wagons because we don’t like scraping bottom. People aren’t buying Volvo’s non-lifted wagons, and they’re thus disappearing from manufacture; it’s easy to see why. When I look at Volvos here on the streets of New England (Volvo Central in the USA), I see lots of 10-, 15-, and 20-year old Cross Country wagons but very few lowered wagons left. (Yeah, I know that Swedespeed has a bunch of wagon lovers who don’t like the lifted versions, but in the real world, they’re in the minority).
What has killed Volvo wagons more than anything to my mind is a combination of a decrease in looks appeal inside and out, vs. outrageously high pricing. It’s not the style “wagon” so much as these other factors. Volvo minimalism has gotten worse over the years, and lots of people do not like the design of the new Volvos (myself included). My 2001 V70XC wagon looked much better outside and inside (with no infotainment screen) than any Volvo wagons of the past 15 years or so. Sensus was a horrible-looking and horrible-to-use OS for an infotainment screen. The new Google OS is better (chiefly because of Google Maps, not anything else), but the move away from physical switches/dials keeps many people (including myself) from being gung-ho about wanting to buy new Volvos.
But back to PHEVs: because we do sometimes 2-3 cross-country road trips every year to see family and friends, BEVs are not appealing (short of having a BEV just for local use, which we sort of have now, but that will change soon, as it appears that either our Volvo PHEV or our BEV will be leaving our stable). We like driving in almost-all-electric locally by plugging in nightly in our garage, but having the luxury not only to stay away from public-charging infrastruture on long road trips but also having the luxury of driving 20-30 miles a day in all-electric mode in stop-and-go traffic on long road trips when we aren’t plugging in at all. This latter feature is really good for very long road trips, and it’s one that is missed generally in discussions like in this thread here: automakers put the option of charging the traction battery off of the ICE into their PHEVs for very good reason — on long road trips.
I should also add that we still only have 120-volt outlets in our garage, and we do fine with two PHEVs and a BEV. We have a 2-car garage and are usually charging one of the three vehicles, but it’s unusual for any of them to not have enough electric charge for driving locally all day. So the need for 240-volt charging for a PHEV is a total myth, when I argue that it’s a myth that it’s needed at home even for BEVs. Yes, you need to be able to charge at home with a PHEV, but that should not be an issue for the vast majority of people looking at buying a new Volvo. If I had to buy a “mild”, non-plugin “hybrid” it would be something like a Toyota Crown Signia, not any Volvo “B”-series car — that’s for sure.