Even if Europe is in love with diesels, Volvo wants to lure away the European clients to electric cars. The Swedish manufacturer aims for fully electric cars to make up 50 per cent of its sales by 2025, the company announced today.
The announcement builds on Volvo Cars’ 2017 industry-first announcement that all new models released from 2019 will be available as either a mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicle.
The company’s strategy to generate half of its sales from electric cars by 2025 positions it as a powerful player in China, the world’s leading market for electrified cars.
The Chinese government plans to have new-energy vehicles account for more than 20 per cent of the country’s annual car sales by 2025, which equates to more than seven million vehicles, based on Chinese government forecasts.
Volvo Cars currently produces the S90 and S90L T8 Twin Engine in China. This week marks the start of production for the XC60 T8 Twin Engine in China, meaning that soon all three Volvo Cars China plants – Luqiao, Chengdu and Daqing – will produce either plug-in hybrid or battery electric cars.
China is Volvo Cars’ largest individual market and this year delivered a 23.3 per cent first-quarter sales increase, contributing to the company’s first-quarter global sales growth of 14 per cent. Volvo car sales in China last year passed 100,000 units for the first time.
