Swedish automaker Volvo has announced that by 2021, it will begin offering a range of five electric vehicles, making it the latest manufacturer to jump into electric car innovation.
Volvo plans to unveil said models between 2019 and 2021, the company said in a statement Wednesday, July 5. In addition to the planned EVs, Volvo will also offer hybrid models as well across its forthcoming product line. It hails the move as "the historic end of cars that only have an internal combustion engine."
That being said, Volvo will continue producing combustion-engine models going forward, of course, Reuters reports. But notably, Volvo will stop producing cars that only offer combustion engines, making it the first of its kind to introduce such a bold, impactful shift.
No More Volvo Cars Without Electric Motors In The Future
Out of the five planned EVs, three of them will be Volvos and two are Polestar-branded — with the whole lineup a mix of fully or partially electric cars. Volvo said all models will be "supplemented by a range of petrol and diesel plug in hybrid and mild hybrid 48-volt options." This essentially means, again, that soon, all Volvo cars will offer some kind of electric motor.
Volvo's range of EVs will fight for space in the heavily crowded yet also fast-ballooning field of electric-powered cars, with Tesla being the most recognizable name of the bunch. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has already began preparing for the mass production of its Model 3 vehicle, while Mercedes Benz and Audi, in addition to Jaguar Land Rover, have all presented vehicle prototypes able to go 400 kilometers, or 310 miles, on a single charge.
The Shift To Electric Cars Imminent
When one considers tighter and tighter regulations on emissions, alongside city governments vehemently banning polluting traffic, manufacturers all vying for huge chunk of spaces in the EV sphere makes quite a lot of sense. Phasing out combustion-engine cars entirely is, of course, a tall order — but it becomes more plausible as more manufacturers commit to the transitionary period.
"People increasingly demand electrified cars," said Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson, as Bloomberg reports. "Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1 million electrified cars by 2025. This is how we are going to do it."
This past March, Volvo confirmed that its EV slated for 2019 will have 250 miles of range and will cost no more than $40,000. More recently, the company said it would mold its Polestar business into a brand of its own, making high-functioning EVs to compete with Tesla and the Mercedes AMG division.
