All Volvo cars will have electric power by 2019

Volvo plans to shift its entire car line-up to electric and hybrid powertrains by 2019, it has revealed.

The carmaker will release five fully-electric vehicles between 2019 and 2021, three of which will be launched under the company's Polestar performance brand. These will be joined by a host of hybrid-powered cars, which will be available with either petrol or diesel engines.

Chief executive Hakan Samuelsson said: "Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of one million electrified cars by 2025. When we said it, we meant it. This is how we are going to do it," he said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The announcement means the Chinese-owned company is the "first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine", says Reuters.

While Volvo "will continue to produce pure combustion-engine" cars before 2019, Reuters says, it could mark "the eventual end of nearly a century of Volvos powered solely that way".

Production of the electrified line-up will be based in the China, says AutoExpress, as it is the home country of Volvo's parent company Geely. However, the cars will continue to be built "for worldwide export".

But the firm is not just reducing the emissions of its vehicles. As Autocar reports, "it aims to have climate-neutral manufacturing operations by 2025".

Volvo also has a vision for 2020 in which "no person will be killed by a new Volvo" because of its enhanced autonomous safety systems, says the Daily Telegraph. The company has recently focused on driverless technology and aims to begin testing on public roads later this year.