Volvo has pledged to go all-electric by 2030. The Swedish carmaker will phase out all news cars in its line-up with an internal combustion engine, including hybrids. The announcement follows the recent news that Jaguar will drop all internal combustion engines from its range by 2025.
Volvo's transition towards becoming a fully electric car maker began in 2019 when Volvo began phasing out diesel engines, offering only electric or more hybridised petrol engines.
Volvo has launched its second fully electric car, the C40 Recharge - which follows the XC40 Recharge electric crossover. In the coming years, Volvo will roll out several additional electric models. By 2025, it aims for 50% of its global sales to consist of fully electric cars, with the rest hybrids. By 2030, every car it sells should be fully electric.
Volvo is likely to find that it has more electric car competition from rivals as the 2030 ban on the sale of new cars powered solely by petrol or diesel engines looms. For example, in addition to 100% of Jaguar sales, Jaguar Land Rover expects to have almost zero sales of internal combustion engine models by 2036 - estimating 60% of its sales will be zero-emission vehicles by 2030.
In October 2020, the Prime Minister laid out plans to make the UK a global leader in green energy to ensure that, within the decade, the UK will reach net zero emissions by 2050. Boris Johnson confirmed that offshore wind will produce more than enough electricity to power every home in the country by 2030.
Some £160 million has also been made available to upgrade ports and infrastructure in Northern England, Scotland and Wales to hugely increase the UK’s offshore wind capacity, which is already the largest in the world and currently meets 10% of our electricity demand.