Volvo S60 T8 is the cheapest new car on sale with over 400 PS

In a world where a 1,500 PS Bugatti Chiron is allowed to roam freely on the public roads, we have become desensitised to horsepower figures.

It wasn’t too long ago (the 90s wasn’t too long ago, right?) that 400 PS was reserved for supercars and super sports cars like the Ferrari 360 Modena (400 PS from a 3.6-litre V8) and Porsche 996.2 GT3 RS (405 PS from a 3.6-litre in-line 6).

These days, everything from a little hatchback to a family saloon can pack 400 PS or more. Hence, it’s quite easy to shove off the fact that the newly launched Volvo S60 T8 R-Design has 407 PS and 640 Nm of torque from its 2.0-litre twin-charged twin-engine plug-in hybrid powertrain.

But the bigger picture here is that Volvo Cars Malaysia (VCM) is asking RM 295,888 for this fully imported (from the USA) compact executive sedan.

Not only is it one of the most affordable cars in its class (with comparable specification), it is also the cheapest new car on sale with over 400 PS out of the box.

To put things into perspective, the S60 T8 R-Design can sprint to 100 km/h faster than a Mercedes-AMG C43. Here's a list of other cars that the Swede sedan will eat for breakfast keep up with, in a century sprint.

Compared to its rivals, the S60 T8 R-Design is armed to the teeth with a panoramic sunroof, 14-speaker Harman Kardon surround sound system, 360-degree surround-view camera, powered boot and the full suite of IntelliSafe Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) just to name a few.

The S60 T8 R-Design while is not the lowest entry point to the segment (the BMW 330i M Sport CKD is RM 7k cheaper), based on on-paper numbers and specification alone, makes it the most attractive package of the lot.

If you didn’t manage to secure the limited units of the fully imported S60, fret not. VCM has confirmed that they will commence locally-assembled (CKD) operations for the S60 sometime in Q2 of 2020.

Every purchase of the Volvo S60 T8 R-Design is covered with a 5-Years/120,000 km warranty.