In a bold move, Volvo said it plans to supplement all of its vehicles with electric propulsion, starting in 2019.
“We are determined to be the first premium car maker to move our entire portfolio of vehicles into electrification,” Volvo President and CEO Håkan Samuelsson said.
Volvo heralded the announcement as “the end of an era for the pure internal combustion engine.”
Internal combustion engines aren’t necessarily going away. But from 2019 on, any Volvos that have them will be supplemented by a 48-volt “mild” hybrid system or a twin-engine plug-in hybrid system, the automaker said.
This means that in the future, all Volvos will have some kind of electric powertrain.
“This is about the customer,” Samuelsson added. “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.”
We are committed to electrification, so from 2019 all new Volvo car models will include an electric motor. #VolvoCarsEVs pic.twitter.com/FWGVKyAdgo
— Volvo Cars (@volvocars) July 5, 2017
Volvo has said it plans to sell 1 million electrified cars by 2025.
As the automaker pushes to meet that goal, Volvo said it will introduce five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021. Three of those will be Volvo models and two will be high-performance electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo’s performance-car arm.
In addition, Volvo noted it will offer a range of gasoline and diesel plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid options on all models, “representing one of the broadest electrified car offerings of any car maker.”
“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” Samuelsson asserted. “Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1 million electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it.”
