According to Volvo, all-electric and hybrid vehicles are the future of the automotive industry, and it intends to start going all-out in both of these areas within the next five years. Earlier this week, the Swedish automaker claimed that it’ll unveil an all-electric car in 2019 that will be able to compete with anything Tesla has, and that not only will it have a full line of hybrid cars by 2020, it expects these electrified vehicles to account for 10% of its sales by that time as well. There couldn’t be a better time for this announcement either, considering how Volkswagen is still in the middle of its dieselgate scandal.
Volvo thinks the future of mobility is in electrification and hybridization — and considering the fallout from Volkswagen’s Dieselgate, that seems like a pretty safe bet. While some other brands simply want to offer a few hybrid models, Volvo is keen to push electrification across its entire range. It is planning to unveil its first all-electric model — one that could well take on Tesla — in 2019, Tesla announced in a statement. The electrification push begins with the Swedish carmaker’s all-new XC90. The full-size SUV includes an all-wheel drive, plug-in hybrid model called the “T8 Twin Engine” that features both a gasoline engine and an electric motor. With an onboard battery pack, electric motor and gasoline engine, the XC90 T8 Twin Engine can do 26 miles of initial all-electric range, 112 mpge (miles per gallon equivalent) and a 0 to 62 mph time of 5.6 seconds. Branching out from there, Volvo will also reveal a plug-in hybrid version of its newly announced S90 full-size luxury sedan. By 2020, with the subsequent introduction of its new 60 and 40 models, Volvo will have a full line of electrified, front-wheel drive hybrids. “We are confident that by 2020, 10% of Volvo’s global sales will be electrified cars,” Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars, said in a statement.
