Volvo is holding off on plans to make its lineup all-electric by the top of this decade, however the automaker’s boss nonetheless helps Europe’s deliberate phaseout of recent internal-combustion car gross sales midway by means of the following decade.
Volvo and 49 firms lately signed a declaration urging the European Union to not change its present timeline, which might see new vehicles with gasoline or diesel engines successfully banned in member international locations by 2035. That plan does embody a loophole for artificial fuels, nonetheless, so internal-combustion automobiles might nonetheless be offered if these fuels might be produced at scale and meet emissions targets.
2025 Volvo EX40 (Europe spec)
“Electrification is the only greatest motion our business can take to chop its carbon footprint,” Volvo Vehicles CEO Jim Rowan mentioned concerning the EU plan. Rivian additionally signed the declaration, however different main automakers didn’t, in keeping with Bloomberg, which famous that different signatories included firms outdoors of auto manufacturing like Ikea and Uber.
The EU plan has been repeatedly challenged because it was first introduced in 2021. Germany efficiently lobbied for the artificial fuels loophole in 2023, and Italian officers lately known as the plan “absurd,” claiming the tightening of emissions requirements main as much as the internal-combustion ban needs to be slowed down to handle altering market circumstances.
2025 Volvo EX30 electrical SUV (dual-motor, Vapor Gray)
Final month Volvo backtracked on a objective, introduced in 2021, to grow to be an all-electric model by 2030. Volvo now expects 90% of its vehicles to be EVs or plug-in hybrids by that point, with the remaining 10% having mild-hybrid powertrains.
Volvo COO Björn Annwall instructed Inexperienced Automobile Reviews that the automaker is ready to finish gross sales of gasoline fashions even when some demand nonetheless exists, and that plug-in hybrids will evolve to supply extra electrical vary with smaller engines.
