Just days after the announcement that Polestar would separate from Volvo to become a standalone manufacturer of electrified performance cars, Volvo has made a bold move and declared that from 2019, all Volvos will be electrified!
The announcement comes as manufacturers make a drive towards green energy, with Volvo already heavily invested in hybrid electric technology and downsized green engines.
However, the decision to go electrified doesn’t mean the death of the internal combustion engine (ICE) for the brand. Volvo is not going pure electric just yet, but will rather offer a range of vehicles in 3 categories:
- Mild Hybrid – cars equipped with a 48-volt electric system and battery that will reduce consumption and emissions and provide a slight boost to the driving experience with additional torque-fill when needed. These cars can traditionally not be run in pure-electric mode, and do not need to be plugged in to an electricity source to charge as they recover energy from braking, coasting etc.
- Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) – cars like the Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine that feature one completely electric-driven axle. These cars can be driven purely in electric mode for short distances of up to ±45km in traffic, city centres etc.
- Full Electric Vehicles (FEV) – cars that, as they say on the box, are pure-electric only. They must be charged electrically at a charging station or from home, emit zero CO2/km, and consume no petrol or diesel.
Volvo will be introducing several new models as well. Between 2019 and 2021, the brand will launch 5 new fully electric cars, three of which will be Volvos, with the other 2 being high performance cars from Polestar.
With time, all existing ICE-only models will be phased out, with full-electric vehicles supplemented by a range of hybridised petrol and diesel models in varying degrees. With this, we may also see the introduction of smaller, 3-cylinder Drive-E engines to supplement electric motors in smaller vehicles like the V40.
The move to electrified vehicles comes as Volvo aims to reach a climate-neutral manufacturing status by 2025 – having no negative effect on climate change.
