Also previews new plug-in hybrid XC40 in China.
Volvo is making a bold promise about the future of electric cars: by 2025, the automaker plans for half of its sales to be full-electric models.
Today’s announcement represents an even more aggressive move toward green-car sales from Volvo. Last year, the company said that from 2019, every new model it launched would be electrified. But that simply means some form of motor and battery system, whether a mild hybrid, standard hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or full-electric. The automaker had committed to selling one million electrified vehicles overall by 2025. Yet today’s pronouncement is an even stronger move toward battery power in future Volvos.
The announcement, made in conjunction with the Beijing Motor Show, is tied to the fact that the Chinese government has called for 20 percent of car sales to be “new energy” models by 2025, Volvo said.
“Last year we made a commitment to electrification in preparation for an era beyond the internal combustion engine,” Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars, said in a statement. “Today we reinforce and expand that commitment in the world’s leading market for electrified cars.”
Notably, Volvo made the decision to only show plug-in hybrid models at the Beijing show – the first time the company had done so at a major auto show. Among those was the XC40 T5 PHEV, marking the first public debut of the plug- version of the new compact SUV. Volvo hasn’t shared any technical specs on the new model, pictured here, so far, but we expect to learn more about it in the coming months.
Volvo said last year that it would build its first all-electric car in China, and that the vehicle would go on sale in 2019 and be exported globally. The model will be built on the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) flexible chassis (also employed by the XC40) and is believed to resemble the 40.2 concept shown in 2016.
We also know that more EVs are on the way from Volvo. The company said last year that it plans to introduce five full-electric cars between 2019 and 2021. Three of those will be Volvos, while two will be sold under the Polestar brand. Specifically, expect the Polestar 2 mid-size sedan, as well as a full-electric SUV that Polestar has described as, “a stunning electric SUV with a beautiful aerodynamic silhouette.”
Incidentally, Volvo is not the only car company to see electrified vehicles as the only future solution to meeting stricter emissions regulars. Maserati has said all its new models from 2019 will be electrified, while BMW has made the same commitment about its cars for 2020. Toyota, too, says that by 2025 it will offer an electrified version of all its models, including Lexus cars. And in Europe, DS Automobiles says it will have an electrified version of all its forthcoming cars.
Source: Volvo
Volvo Cars aims for 50 per cent of sales to be electric by 2025
Apr 25, 2018
Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, aims for fully electric cars to make up 50 per cent of its sales by 2025, the company announced today.
The announcement builds on Volvo Cars’ 2017 industry-first announcement that all new models released from 2019 will be available as either a mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicle.
The company’s strategy to generate half of its sales from electric cars by 2025 positions it as a powerful player in China, the world’s leading market for electrified cars.
The Chinese government plans to have new-energy vehicles account for more than 20 per cent of the country’s annual car sales by 2025, which equates to more than seven million vehicles, based on Chinese government forecasts.
“Last year we made a commitment to electrification in preparation for an era beyond the internal combustion engine,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars. “Today we reinforce and expand that commitment in the world’s leading market for electrified cars. China’s electric future is Volvo Cars’ electric future.”
Volvo Cars currently produces the S90 and S90L T8 Twin Engine in China. This week marks the start of production for the XC60 T8 Twin Engine in China, meaning that soon all three Volvo Cars China plants – Luqiao, Chengdu and Daqing – will produce either plug-in hybrid or battery electric cars.
Today at the Beijing Auto Show, Volvo Cars will visually reinforce the company’s position as an industry leader in electrification with all cars on display plugged-in. The event marks the first time the company displays only plug-in hybrid vehicles at an auto show.
In another first, side-by-side on stage, the company is displaying its three globally-available Volvo SUVs: the XC90, XC60 and the new XC40. Beijing also marks the first public appearance for the T5 plug-in hybrid version of the new XC40.
The new XC40 was recently crowned 2018 European Car of the Year and has already amassed more than 60,000 orders globally since its launch in late 2017, even though Volvo Cars is yet to open order books in China.
The early success of the XC40 supports Volvo Cars’ expectations of strong demand for its new small SUV in China. These expectations are also underpinned by growth forecasts for the segment over the next five years, as well as a growing middle-class population and China GDP growth trends driven by domestic consumption.
China is Volvo Cars’ largest individual market and this year delivered a 23.3 per cent first quarter sales increase, contributing to the company’s first-quarter global sales growth of 14 per cent. Volvo car sales in China last year passed 100,000 units for the first time.
The local launch of the new XC40 and the company’s deepened commitment to electrification leave Volvo Cars well-positioned to deliver on its ambition to further boost its share of the world’s largest car market.