Volvo Cars has announced that every Volvo it launches from 2019 will have an electric motor, marking a historic shift from cars with only internal combustion engines (ICE) and placing electrification at the core of its future business.

The announcement represents a significant move to embrace electrification and highlights an emerging chapter in automotive history.

“This is about the customer,” said Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo president and CEO. “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.”

Volvo will introduce a portfolio of electrified cars across its model range, embracing fully electric cars, plug in hybrid cars and mild hybrid cars.

The company will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021, three of which will be Volvo models and two of which will be electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo’s performance car arm. Full details of these models will be announced at a later date.

The decision follows this month’s announcement that Volvo Cars will turn Polestar into a new separately-branded electrified global high performance car company.

Volvo has also stated that it will offer a range of petrol and diesel plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid 48-volt options on all models. Although this means Volvo hasn’t committed to going fully electric, it does indicate that pure ICE cars will be gradually phased out and replaced by ICE cars with electrified options.

“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” said Samuelsson. “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.”

For more information, visit the Volvo website.

| An engineering.com release  ||  July 5,  2017   |||