Volvo wants half of its car sales to be electric by 2025
Half of all the cars Volvo sells by 2025 will be electrically driven, the Swedish manufacturer has declared.
The company believes the goal will position it strongly in China, the world’s biggest car market and a huge player in the growing field of alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFVs). The car maker is owned by Chinese billionaire Li Shufu's Geely corporation.
The move follows an announcement made by Volvo last year that from 2019 all new cars in its range would be offered with an electric drive train or hybrid option.
Chief executive Håkan Samuelsson said the move marked the “historic end” of cars powered solely by petrol or diesel, “placing electrification at the core of its future business”.
With sales of 24.2m cars last year, China is by far the world’s largest automotive market, ahead of second-placed America, with 17.3m sales.
In attempt to tackle China’s pollution problems the Beijing government has set a target of AFVs making up 20pc of new car sales by 2025 - the equivalent of 7m cars according to official forecasts.
Mr Samuelsson said Volvo's 50pc electric plan by 2025 “reinforces and expands” Volvo’s commitment to AFVs in the world’s leading market for electrified cars. He added: “China’s electric future is Volvo cars’ electric future.”
China is Volvo’s largest individual market, with the company selling 114,500 cars there last year, out of a global total of 571,500. In the first quarter of 2018, Volvo sales in China rose 23.3pc, against total global growth of 14pc.
However, the company has made bold promises in the past that it has failed to fulfil. Two years ago Volvo said it would start testing driverless cars on London’s roads by 2017 in what it described as its “most ambitious” trial ever.
The UK capital’s tough driving conditions and complex road network would stretch the technology to the limit, Volvo said, and build on earlier tests on the streets of Gothenberg, the company’s home town.
But the cars have so far yet to hit London’s roads, with Volvo refusing to explain what is behind the hold up - or if it will happen at all.
The Swedish manufacturer has positioned itself as being in the vanguard of autonomous cars, but has tried to differ from rivals by saying that it sees the benefits the technology offers not only to motorists, but society in general.
Volvo has pledged that by 2020 self-driving systems will mean that no one will be killed or seriously injured by a new Volvo, with Mr Samuelsson having previously said 90pc of accidents are caused by drivers being distracted.
He added: “The sooner autonomous cars are on the roads, the sooner lives will start being saved.”
Nonetheless scrutiny of self-driving cars has stepped up a gear following a fatality in March. Pedestrian Elaine Herzberg was hit by a Volvo XC90 as she crossed the street in Phoenix, Arizona. The car was being used by Uber to test its driverless technology.
The ride-hailing company has said it will buy up to 24,000 Volvo SUVs as part of its plan to build a fleet of driverless cars.
