Volvo CEO: Clear rules needed to end ICE

Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson envisions the Swedish automaker becoming an electric-only brand within the next 10 years.

"I would be surprised if we wouldn't deliver only electric cars from 2030," Samuelsson said during last week's Financial Times Future of the Car Summit.

Volvo previously stated that it wants half of its global sales to be full-electric models by 2025, but it had not set a deadline for when it would stop making vehicles with combustion engines.

This year, Volvo wants 20 percent of its global sales to be electrified models, but the majority of them will be plug-in hybrids. It is still completing the launch of its first full-electric car, XC40 Recharge P8.

Bentley has also said it will be electric only by 2030.

Samuelsson also told the summit that firm deadlines for the end of combustion engine sales will do more to get people to switch to full-electric powertrains than offering cash incentives.

"The way forward would be to have clear rules on when we need to exit the combustion engine," Samuelsson said. "Once you have realized that the petrol and diesel engine are really not part of the future, it's rather easy to see you have to move fast into the new world."

He said Volvo already has come to this realization, so he is more at ease when countries such as the U.K. set an end date for the sale of cars with fuel-burning engines.

"Volvo will be very careful and deliver only electric engines before anybody has legal requirements for this," the CEO said.

Imposing "old-fashioned clear rules" is why today's vehicles are equipped with seat belts, airbags and antilock brakes, he said.

"That was implemented rather fast," he said of those past safety technologies, "and that was not done with any type of incentives or credit points."