Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo Manufacturer, believes that Volvo will be an all-electric car brand within 10 years. “I would be surprised if we don't just deliver electric cars from 2030 onwards,” Samuelsson told the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit.
Manufacturer Volvo had previously communicated that it had a goal that by 2025 half of its sales worldwide would be made with electric cars. However, until now it had never put an expiration date on the internal combustion engine in its range.
Read also
It is true that Samuelsson was not categorical and that leaves the door open for both the internal combustion engine and plug-in hybrids. Still, it's a risky statement on the surface, especially as Volvo is still wrapping up the launch of its first electric car, the Volvo XC40 Recharge P8. While it is true that the model's short-term success seems assured.
Volvo in favor of banning internal combustion engines to achieve its goal
Obviously, at Manufacturer Volvo they think of China (the biggest electricity market in the world), to arrive at that number, but it might not be enough. China is the brand's second market (154.961 units in 2019), behind Europe and its 340.605 units in 2019.
A full range of electric cars would help increase its market share in China, but Europe's weight would remain important in the balance. And here, the Volvo manufacturer still sells a lot of diesel cars, especially in XC60 and XC90 SUVs, which are its second and third best-selling models, respectively.
And for that it has the tightening of the European Union's emission standards, which would in fact make petrol and diesel cars obsolete, as well as a ban on the sale of these cars in the United Kingdom.
Samuelsson defended at the summit some firm deadlines for the end of sales of combustion engines. He considers that they would be more effective in switching to electric cars than incentives to buy
“The way to go would be to have clear rules on when to exit the combustion engine. Once you realize that gasoline and diesel engines aren't really part of the future, it's pretty easy to see that you need to move quickly. to the new world,” explained Samuelsson. And Manufacturer Volvo is already moving very fast in that direction, he assured.
