Volvo Cars says it is aiming for a target date of 2025 to have 50% of its sales be fully electric cars building on its recent announcement it would release all new models in 2019 either as a mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicle (EV).
Volvo’s strategy will be to target the Chinese market, the world’s leading segment for EVs. The Chinese government on its own is planning for a surge in EVs by this time with the hope that new electric vehicles will account for more than 20 percent of the country’s annual car sales by 2025. That equates to more than seven million vehicles, Volvo says.
“Last year we made a commitment to electrification in preparation for an era beyond the internal combustion engine,” says Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars. “Today we reinforce and expand that commitment in the world’s leading market for electrified cars. China’s electric future is Volvo Cars’ electric future.”
This month, all three Volvo Chinese automotive production facilities—Luqiao, Chengdu and Daqing—will be producing either a plug-in hybrid or battery electric car for the first time. The company also plans to introduce the first version of its T5 plug-in hybrid version of the new XC40 SUV at the Beijing Auto Show taking place this week.
Not surprisingly, Chine is Volvo’s largest individual market, delivering 23.3 percent first quarter sales growth and contributing 14 percent sales growth to the company’s first quarter financials. In 2017, Volvo had sales of 100,000 units in China for the first time.
