Volvo sets goal to sell 1 million electrified cars by 202

Hakan Samuelsson

Following a global sales record in 2015, Volvo plans to sell 1 million electrified cars by 2025, the company said today.

"It is a deliberately ambitious target," Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement. "It is going to be a challenge, but Volvo wants to be at the forefront of this shift to electrification."

Last year, Volvo’s global sales gained 8 percent to 503,127 deliveries.

The automaker said it plans to offer at least two hybrid versions of every model and release an all-electric car in 2019.

The company’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) and Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) can incorporate hybrid or fully electric car technology, Volvo said.

Volvo’s 90 series and 60 series are built on SPA. Volvo has plans for a smaller car, the 40 series, which will be built on CMA. Those three series will have electrified versions.

In October, Volvo said it expects electrified models to account for 10 percent of its global sales by 2020.

A diesel plug-in hybrid V60 station wagon in 2012 was Volvo’s first foray into electrification.

A Volvo spokesman said the V60 diesel plug-in hybrid would be the natural starting point for the 1 million goal, which is cumulative.

The well-received XC90 figures to be an important cog in the company’s goal. The XC90 T8 Twin Engine Plug-in Hybrid is now reaching dealership lots.

The XC90 T8 Twin Engine Plug-in Hybrid, which can achieve 400 hp from its gasoline engine and electric motor, can get 17 miles of pure electric driving and fully charge in about four hours, according to Volvo’s website.

The S90 sedan, which made its North American debut at this year’s Detroit auto show in January, will have an available plug-in gas-electric hybrid option.

Volvo is not the first company to set a high goal for electric vehicle sales. The Renault-Nissan Alliance sold 302,000 EVs worldwide through 2015, well behind its goal to sell 1.5 million EVs by March 31, 2017. autonews