2018 Volvo XC60 Engine & Performance
The XC60 in India comes with a single engine option. It is a 2.0 litre four cylinder diesel in D5 spec that makes a healthy 235 horses and 480 Nm of torque. This unit is easily the most refined in its segment. Diesel clatter is inaudible even at idle. Acceleration off the line is quick and the motor is super smooth. The motor does not feel strained even at higher triple digit speeds. The Aisin eight speed automatic gearbox is a fantastic combination with the D5 engine. The XC60 also features the Power Pulse tech that we saw in the V90 CC earlier. Thanks to this, turbo lag is all but noticeable. Go down a gear via kick down to accelerate and response is immediate. There’s driving modes too. Dynamic is best suited for spirited driving out here. The air suspension lowers the SUV, throttle response is sharper and gear shifts are more aggressive. The XC60 takes to corners with glee and remains planted at all times. Although the steering still feels light in Dynamic mode, it is still direct and does what you tell it to do. The Off-Road mode raises the ground clearance to a max of 223 mm and with the AWD system, it should be able to tackle decent trails on the off beaten path. The all round air suspension ensures that the XC60 soaks up the undulations and bad roads well. It feels planted at high speeds too.
The Adaptive cruise control is particularly worth a mention. In this, the system will automatically adjust itself to the speed of the vehicle in front once activated. The XC60 will slow down if the car in front slows down and accelerate by itself if the car in front does the same and drive constantly at the speed you have set. It even manages to turn by itself to a small extent. This is as close as you can get to some sort of autonomous driving in India for now. The Lane Keeping aid will detect if you are going off lane and pull the car back into your driving lane by itself. If you need to overtake, it will refrain you from changing lanes unless you give the indicator. However these technologies will work on roads that have proper lane markings and we were lucky to have such roads during our drive on the ECR.
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