Swedish automaker Volvo plans to follow Cadillac‘s lead and begin manufacturing electric vehicles only before the end of the decade.
In a statement released this week, Volvo said it would stop making internal combustion engine vehicles entirely by 2030, which will include hybrids and plug-in hybrids.
“Volvo Cars is committed to becoming a leader in the fast-growing premium electric car market and plans to become a fully electric car company by 2030,” the company said. “By then, the company intends to only sell fully electric cars and phase out any car in its global portfolio with an internal combustion engine, including hybrids.”
Additionally, the company plans to begin selling its vehicles through online sales channels only, saying its move towards full electrification “comes together with an increased focus on online sales and a more complete, attractive and transparent consumer offer under the name Care by Volvo.”
The Care by Volvo program allows customers to pay a flat monthly fee for a Volvo vehicle, which covers the vehicle lease, a set of winter wheels and tires and any costs associated with maintenance, road hazard protection and normal wear-and-tear. The 24-month subscription plan also allows customers to swap out their vehicle for another qualified Volvo product anytime within the first 12 months of ownership. For example, if the customer originally selected a Volvo S60 sedan but wanted to switch to an XC60 crossover, that would be possible, as long as they made the move within the first 12 months of the contract.
“There is no long-term future for cars with an internal combustion engine,” Henrik Green, Volvo chief technology officer, said in a prepared statement. “We are firmly committed to becoming an electric-only car maker and the transition should happen by 2030. It will allow us to meet the expectations of our customers and be a part of the solution when it comes to fighting climate change.”
This strategy mimics that of Cadillac, which plans to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles in favor of EVs over the next decade or so. EVs are expected to make up half of Cadillac’s product portfolio by 2025 and the EV transformation is expected to ramp up even further between 2025 and 2030.
The first battery-electric Cadillac model to arrive will be the Lyriq crossover, which will go on sale early next year. Two other electric crossovers expected to be called the Optiq and Symboliq will arrive between now and 2025, as well, with one of these vehicles being smaller than the Lyriq and another being larger. An electric flagship sedan called the Celestiq is also currently under development and will launch before the end of 2025, while an electric version of the Cadillac Escalade is in the works too.
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Comments
I can see Volvo pulling it off. 9 years is a long time in the auto industry. I sometimes think back to what vehicles looked like 9-10 years ago and it’s pretty surprising how plain they look in hindsight.
Volvo also only has a small footprint in America that pretty much is a bunch of people who want to have a Swedish car brand because It’s not German, Japanese or American. They don’t win best in class at anything or are competitively priced. Their bread and butter sales are in Sweden where there are massive import taxes on other brands.
Steven: Problem is (if you read all the negative comments on here about cars produced in China), Volvo is about as much Swedish now as I am. It would be more correct to say Volvo is a Chinese brand that originated from Sweden.
volvo is owned by chinese geely yet they are still considered swedish? i guess consumers don’t care about that.
something something Jeep is Italian now
@V: French now actually, thanks to the merger of FCA with (and board-level control by) PSA Groupe.
@V & Njia: the shares of the multinational corporation which owns the Jeep brand are traded on 3 stock exchanges: in New York, Paris and Milano.
The seat of the company and its head office is in the Netherlands.
The CEO is a Portuguese national, the president is born in New York and holds both US and italian citizenship. A truly multinational company.
Saving the US company from bankruptcy enabled FCA to increase Jeep sales worlwide from about 300’000 to more than a million, and on all continents (not so well, though, in China). FCA merged on January 16, 2021 with PSA to form Stellantis.
A large chunk of Daimler Benz stock is owned by Arabs. Does they make the company a German-Gulf Nations manufacturer?
Jeep & Ram are still American even though they are controlled by Europeans.
Mazda was always Japanese even though it was controlled by Ford and Nissan never because French, either.
Was Opel secretary American even though a German brand?
Yes Steve, Volvo was and is a Swedish brand under US (Ford, 1999-2010) and Chinese (Geely, since 2010) ownership the same way as Opel, Vauxhall, Saab, Holden and Daewoo were considered German, British, Swedish, Australian and Korean brands during all the decades they were 100% US owned, being subsidiaries of General Motors.
A funny note at the end:
when Geely wanted to start producing and selling Volvo cars in China, Geely had to form a 50:50 joint venture with its own subsidiary. Today this restriction does no longer exist. Tesla China is a 100% subsidiary of Tesla, USA.
@Steven: your statement about »Sweden where there are massive import taxes on other brands« is misleading.
Sweden is a member of the European Union i.e. also an integral part of her customs union and internal market. Therefore there is no obstacle to sell cars produced anywhere else in the same internal market in Sweden. Customfree are also imports from Britain and Japan because of free trade agreements. Imports from other countries, though, are charged with an import duty which amounts to 10%, tge WTO rate, I believe.
Look up „European Union Customs Union“ on en.wikipedia.org to find out which countries are included in the EU internal market.
So I read this article with great interest because of my job working at a Volvo store. Here’s what I can say thus far. At this point, our dealership has experience with exactly 3 all electric XC40’s (the Recharge). One is for the Volvo training rep and that car has been in for service work several times. The second is being driven by our GM of the dealership. He’s quite frustrated as it’s been a total nightmare thus far. The third is for the sales to give test drives. I’m not sure how many issues that one has had, but so far these are not working out well. The next step is the T8 hybrid electric plug-in. All I’m going to say is that from what I’m seeing, I would NOT buy or lease one. The range is stupid low and they are non-stop problems. I am ashamed at how many T8’s end up back at our dealership having the entire system replaced. I’ve also seen too many of them under the VBB (Volvo buy-back program) sitting on our back lot waiting for Volvo to figure out what to do with them. All I can say is that Volvo has enough problems and this all electric plan could easily kill Volvo if they don’t get the problems worked out.
Don’t get me wrong. I like the Volvo’s and would actually lease one if not for all the issues. Last thought? Dealers are NOT happy about this “Care By Volvo”!! Nothing like kicking your loyal dealers in the face and putting out a statement saying that they want to rid the world of Volvo stores.
My condolences to you. Good luck my friend. Notes and more automakers are so myopic when it comes to Evs that they are going to be in for a rude awakening when the customer does not break down the doors to buy one as many of these automakers are banking on.
I don’t get it. What’s “luxurious” about a golf cart and a cord? Isn’t independence better than socialism? Oh wait, look who got elected.
There is insufficient grid capacity to charge all these electric vehicles simultaneously, the grid will collapse similar to Texas this winter and California wild fire outages. remember the hair dryer scare in the 1970’s when the dryers became common and utilities were asking users to not use them. The green nirvana will cause the US to become energy scarce society
Shhhhh. Don’t say that. You are making too much sense.
Yes, shhhhh, you’ll get banned for stating facts and truth….beware !
Put a fork in it. Volvo is about to come an irreverent brand. The Chinese turned it to garbage. Volvo used to be something special- bullitproof, practical. Now it’s just going to be another glorified golf cart with no differentiation in the market whatsoever.
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch (in Texas) hundreds if not thousands kept warm for days and days by living in those “no future” Internal Combustion-powered vehicles that saved many from freezing to death. Owners of the 2021 F-150 plugged-in extension cords to their truck’s inverters and got power that way. Dratted Internal Combustion powered vehicles !
I can see a great EV future, IF batteries can equal IC engine range and IF we develop an adequate electric grid to provide charging. Renewables are questionable at best. Ask Texans!