Volvo Cars to go all electric

Volvo Cars has placed electrification at the core of its future business by announcing that every Volvo launched from 2019 will have an electric motor.

The announcement represents one of the most significant moves by any car maker to embrace electrification.

‘This is about the customer,’ said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars. ‘People increasingly demand electrified cars, and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs. You can now pick and choose whichever electrified Volvo you wish.’

Volvo Cars will introduce a portfolio of electrified cars across its model range, embracing fully electric cars, plug-in hybrid cars and mild-hybrid cars.

It will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021, three of which will be Volvo models and two of which will be high-performance electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo Cars’ performance car arm.

These five cars will be supplemented by a range of petrol and diesel plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid 48-volt options on all models, representing one of the broadest electrified car offerings of any car maker.

Håkan Samuelsson said, ‘Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1m electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it.’