STARTING AND DRIVING
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Preconditioning
•If possible, precondition the vehicle with the charging cable before driving.
• Avoid parking the vehicle so that the passen-ger compartment becomes too hot or cold.Park, if possible, in a climate controlled park-ing garage.
• For short drives after using the precondition-ing function, turn off the climate systemblower if possible.
• If preconditioning is not possible in coldweather, use the seat and steering wheelheating primarily. Avoid heating the entirepassenger compartment, which reduces thehybrid battery's charge level.
Driving
•
Choose the Pure drive mode to help mini-
mize electric power consumption.
• Maintain a constant speed and an adequate distance to the vehicle ahead to minimizeuse of the brakes.
• Balance energy requirements using theaccelerator pedal and utilize the gauge onthe instrument panel to see the amount ofpower available from the electric motor. Thishelps avoid starting the gasoline engineunnecessarily. The electric motor is moreenergy-efficient than the gasoline engine,especially at lower speeds. See also the arti-cle "Hybrid-related symbols and messages". •
Brake as gently as possible; doing socharges the hybrid battery. There is a regen-erative function in the brake pedal which canbe augmented by the electric motor's brakingcapacity when the gear selector is in mode B
.
• Higher speeds increase energy consumption and the vehicle's wind resistance increasesalong with speed. Do not exceed postedspeed limits.
• In hilly terrain, put the gear selector in mode B
to utilize the electric motor's braking func-
tion when the accelerator pedal is released. This helps charge the hybrid battery.
• Use the
Hold function at highway speeds
when traveling farther than is possible using the hybrid battery's capacity.
• Whenever possible, avoid using the
Chargefunction to charge the hybrid battery. Charg- ing the battery using the gasoline engineincreases fuel consumption and carbon diox-ide emissions.
• Avoid carrying unnecessary items (extra load)in the vehicle.
• Maintain correct tire pressure. Check tirepressure regularly (when the tires are cold).
• Use tires recommended by Volvo for yourvehicle.
• Remove snow tires when threat of snow orice has ended. •
Note that roof racks, ski racks, etc, increaseair resistance and also energy consumption.
• Avoid driving with open windows.
Handling and roadholding
• Vehicle load, tire design and inflation pres-sure all affect vehicle handling. Therefore,check that the tires are inflated to the rec-ommended pressure according to the vehicleload. Loads should be distributed so thatcapacity weight or maximum permissible axleloads are not exceeded.
• At the specified curb weight your vehicle hasa tendency to understeer, which means thatthe steering wheel has to be turned morethan might seem appropriate for the curva-ture of a bend. This ensures good stabilityand reduces the risk of rear wheel skid.Remember that these properties can alterwith the vehicle load. The heavier the load inthe cargo compartment, the less the ten-dency to understeer.
Related information
•Hybrid-related information in the instrumentpanel (p. 133)
• Parking climate (preconditioning) (p. 187)
• Tire inflation pressure table (p. 563)
• Volvo and the environment (p. 20)
• Hybrid-related symbols and messages(p. 397)
