Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo, Believes That Volvo Will be an Exclusively Electric Car Brand in 10 Years. “I Would be Surprised if We Did Not Start Delivering Electric Cars by 2030,” Samuelsson Said to the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit.
Volvo had previously communicated that its goal was for half of its global sales to consist of electric cars by 2025. However, until now it had never set a deadline for the internal combustion engine in its lineup.
Read Also
It is true that Samuelsson was not categorical, and this leaves the door open for both the internal combustion engine and plug-in hybrids. Still, it is a risky statement on the surface, especially since Volvo is still finalizing the launch of its first electric car, the Volvo XC40 Recharge P8. Although it is true that the short-term success of the model seems guaranteed.
Volvo in Favor of Banning Internal Combustion Engines to Achieve Its Goal
Obviously, at Volvo they are thinking of China (the largest electric market in the world) to reach that number, but it may not be enough. China is the brand’s second market (154,961 units in 2019), behind Europe with its 340,605 units in 2019.
-
Latin America’s Largest Port Invests $400 Million in Rail System with Trains Up to 2.4 Kilometers Long
-
New Smart Radar Begins Issuing Fines to Solo Drivers in Carpool Lanes, Uses Cameras to Count Occupants, Changing Traffic Enforcement Rules on Busy European Roads
-
Why can the crane operator only obey the correct signalman on the construction site: among dozens of workers, a hand raised by the wrong person can confuse the maneuver and turn a load of tons into an immediate risk.
-
What changes with the new public transportation rules that can reduce pressure on fares and pave the way for zero fare in Brazil?
A full range of electric cars would help increase its market share in China, but the weight of Europe would still be important on the scale. Here, Volvo still sells many diesel cars, especially in the XC60 and XC90 SUVs, which are their second and third best-selling models, respectively.
And for this, there is the tightening of EU emissions standards, which would effectively render gasoline and diesel cars obsolete, along with the ban on selling these cars in the UK.
Samuelsson Advocated at the Summit for Firm Deadlines for the End of Combustion Engine Sales. He Believes They Would Be More Effective in the Shift to Electric Cars Than Incentives to Buy
“The way forward would be to have clear rules on when to phase out the combustion engine. Once you realize that gasoline and diesel engines are not really part of the future, it is very easy to see that you need to move quickly to the new world,” Samuelsson explained. And Volvo is already moving very quickly in that direction, he assured.
