That’s right. Volvo will soon be ditching cars powered purely by an internal combustion engine (ICE), which is needless to say, a bold move. Today the Swedish brand has announced that as of 2019, its cars will either be fully-electric or hybrid. This will mark the end of the Volvo’s relationship with the traditional petrol/diesel engine, but it also sends out a strong statement to the automotive world.
Trendsetters?
This move means that Volvo will be the first brand to move away from ICE in favour of greener solutions. This is likely to go hand-in-hand with the brand’s direction to offer autonomous cars from 2021, another step forward in the automotive world. So, with this announcement, will we now see other brands following suit? From a personal point of view, I hope not, as I still believe an ICE has a big part to play in the motoring world and although it won’t last forever, I don’t want it to die out just yet.
Mind you, I’m possibly overreacting here, as the brand will still offer hybrid models, but either way, this feels a little bit like the beginning of the end. Volvo so far has confirmed it launch five fully-electric cars between 2019 and 2021, two of which will be high-performance Polestar models. Speaking of Polestar, that moniker is now set to become its own brand, with Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo Cars, leading Polestar as Chief Executive Officer.
“This is about the customer,” said Håkan Samuelsson, President and Chief Executive of Volvo Cars. “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.”
This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car. Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1m electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it.”
