Volvo will be the first traditional automaker to electrify every new car model it sells starting 2019.
Volvo said it will launch five purely electric vehicles between 2019 and 2021, three of them branded as Volvos, and two more as Polestar high-performance electric vehicles. Polestar has been Volvo’s performance sub-brand.
Apparently, Volvo is looking to go beyond the US to China stating that although the US is the largest or second-largest market for virtually every car offered in the US. But since 2014, China has been Volvo’s biggest market, followed by Sweden, then the US. Volvo sells just over half-million cars worldwide, with a midterm goal of selling 800,000 vehicles. It now says it wants to sell 1 million electrified cars by 2025.
Originally owned by a Chinese company, Geely Holding Group,Volvo seeks to reduce the problem of air pollution with electrified vehicles with expectations that the world’s congested, polluted megacities will restrict or tax combustion-only cars. Combustion-only vehicle drivers may pay a surcharge to enter the city limits, or pay more for parking. A plug-in hybrid might be allowed into a city only if the car came in on battery power, for instance. A combustion-engine car might not be allowed, or the driver would pay a surcharge of $5 to $25.
According to Volvo, the five pure EVs will be supplemented by a range of gas and diesel plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid 48-volt options on all models. “This means that there will in future be no Volvo cars without an electric motor, as pure [internal combustion engine] cars are gradually phased out and replaced by ICE cars that are enhanced with electrified options,” the company said.