Volvo: Gas cars are history after 2019
The Swedish automaker is slamming on the brakes on vehicles powered solely by internal combustion engines, announcing that every car it makes from 2019 onward will have an electric motor.
The move makes Chinese-owned Volvo the first traditional carmaker to fully embrace electric and hybrid production.
"This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car," Volvo's president Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement Wednesday.
Volvo said it would launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021. Three of them will carry the Volvo brand, and the other two will come from the company's high-performance unit Polestar.
The rest of Volvo's fleet will consist of either plug-in hybrid cars or mild hybrid cars, which combine a small gas engine with a battery.