Volvo Cars has announced that every Volvo it launches from 2019 will have an electric motor, marking the end of cars that only have an internal combustion engine (ICE) and placing electrification at the core of its future business.
It said the announcement represents one of the most significant moves by any car maker to embrace electrification and highlights how over a century after the invention of the internal combustion engine electrification is paving the way for a new chapter in automotive history.
“This is about the customer,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive. “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, but it will still be manufacturing earlier models that have pure combustion engines.
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. Full details of these models will be announced at a later date.
Geely, Volvo’s Chinese owner, has been pushing ahead with electric car development for more than a decade, and aims to sell one million electric cars by 2025.
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