Volvo has announced that every car it launches from 2019 will have an electric motor, placing electrification at the core of the Swedish carmaker's future business.
“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 will introduce a portfolio of electrified cars across its model range, encompassing 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 Volvo's performance car arm, Polestar. 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.
This means that there will in future be no Volvo cars without an electric motor, as pure Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars are gradually phased out and replaced by ICE cars that are enhanced with electrified options.
“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” said Samuelsson. “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.”
Full details of Volvo's fully electrified models will be announced at a later date.