Interesting post. I have the same car. Have you actually measured the amount of electricity needed to charge the battery from empty to full? My thinking is there are normally assumed to be energy losses in the charging process of 10% to 15% , and the net capacity of the battery is also probably 10% less than the 10.7KwH stated by Volvo. So a calculated figure may be different to a real one. Not that's going to detract from your argument and your calculations and reasoning seem ok to me. Perhaps in winter on short journeys the petrol consumption might not be as good as the figure you use and I reckon getting 20 miles on battery on average.
I tend to keep the car charged not giving any thought to the comparative costs but enjoying the quieter and smoother drive on local journeys. I know using the car as a normal hybrid can be very economical. I did a very long slow crawl across central London recently with a depleted battery and got 44mpg.
I'm going to look into this myself. I'll start by not charging the car for a few days and see what the petrol consumption is like on my normal local journeys.. Thanks for raising it.
I tend to keep the car charged not giving any thought to the comparative costs but enjoying the quieter and smoother drive on local journeys. I know using the car as a normal hybrid can be very economical. I did a very long slow crawl across central London recently with a depleted battery and got 44mpg.
I'm going to look into this myself. I'll start by not charging the car for a few days and see what the petrol consumption is like on my normal local journeys.. Thanks for raising it.
