After the launch of the brand’s first fully-electric car – XC40 Recharge, Volvo President and CEO, Hakan Samuelsson revealed that he expects the Swedish carmaker to move towards a fully-electric future within the next 20 years.
In a brief exchange with Autocar, Samuelsson said that it is only a matter of time when the brand will become an all-electric firm. However, he says that “The ones who will decide [the timing] in the end are the customers.
“The higher the percentage of all-electric cars the faster we will shut down the combustion engine [programme]. If only a small percent [of sales] are combustion engines we will probably stop faster,” he added.
Samuelsson also highlighted Volvo’s vision to become carbon neutral by 2040, noting “that would be impossible if you still have combustion engines. Let’s see if that vision comes true.”
Currently, the Geely-owned carmaker has not revealed any information on the upcoming EV models following the XC40 Recharge. However, Volvo is committed to offer electric versions of its existing models.
In order to achieve their target of 50% EV sales by 2025, Volvo has developed platforms such as the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform used in the XC40, which can be adapted for both internal combustion and electric powertrains.
Volvo is also working on the new version of its larger platform, dubbed the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which is expected to be unveiled in the next-generation XC90 in 2021.
