Volvo To ONLY Make Electric Cars

And sales targets seem a little over-ambitious

Volvo, a brand that’s synonymous with safety, has now announced plans to also become synonymous with electric cars in the future.

Although 2030 seems like an age away, it’s a very short time to announce such a large and drastic change to the way the Swedish car manufacturer exists.

Announced in a press release last week, Volvo made it clear that their plan is to cease all sales of non-electric cars by 2030. This drastic decision includes ceasing the sale of hybrid cars, although the decision does not apply to their other vehicles such as their lorries or busses.

The reason for their decision is due to several reasons, including the anticipation of legislation changes, increasing demand for electric cars and the thought that there may be ‘no long-term future’ for non-electric vehicles.

As more and more manufacturers show unyielding interest in the electric car market, Volvo, to oversimplify, likely doesn’t want to miss out or be left behind and instead, wants to change with the times rather than be made obsolete. Mercedes, BMW, Ford, Toyota and many other big-name brands have all made bold moves to broadening their EV portfolios. And with Tesla’s recent stock market surges, we imagine most manufacturers held meetings to discuss the future of electric cars and how their company can fit into that.

Furthermore, Volvo also announced that they will be increasing focus on online sales over showrooms and that all of their EV models will be exclusively available online. Another trend that Tesla is likely at least partly responsible for as the American company is known for only selling their cars online, thus saving millions of dollars in costs on showrooms.

By 2025, Volvo aims for 50% of its global sales to be fully electric cars, with the rest hybrid. A rather unrealistic goal considering Volvo is already late to the party with their first EV only being released last year in 2020, called the XC40 Recharge. Volvo have said ‘several’ new EVs will be released in the coming years but will that be enough to make up 50% of their sales? It’s not likely.

Nonetheless, it’s surprising that Volvo is so late to the game as their brand seems to be a good fit for more environmentally-friendly electric vehicles. We look forward to see how things play out.

Let us know what you think of the news, in the comments below.

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