Volvo abandons its objective of being fully battery electric vehicles in 2030
- Volvo Cars (a subsidiary of the Chinese group Geely since its separation from the Ford group) has announced that it is abandoning its objective of selling only battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in 2030, which is yet another renunciation in a context of collective awareness that the European Commission's objective of stopping the sale of thermal vehicles in 2035 seems increasingly unattainable.
- However, Volvo remains cautious by avoiding drastically reducing its forecasts and by remaining on an ambitious target of more than 90% sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in 2030. The carmaker still plans to sell a certain number of hybrid vehicles on this horizon, mainly MHEVs (Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicles).
- In 2023, Volvo will market 100,000 battery electric vehicles worldwide, representing 15% of its total sales. But the carmaker specifies that in the second quarter of 2024, these vehicles represented 26% of its global sales, a figure never reached before and higher than that observed among German Premium carmakers. Volvo indicates that all of its battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles represented 48% of its sales over this period.
- The objective of “more than 90%”, however, still remains far from current reality and it is not impossible that Volvo will reduce its ambitions again in 2027 or 2028, if the BEV market does not increase as much as expected. As a result of this strategy change, the old XC90 SUV with a thermal engine continues its career alongside the new EX90 SUV with a fully electric engine which was supposed to be the only large SUV produced by Volvo from 2025. The XC90 even receives a facelift to be able to remain in the catalog until 2030.