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Volvo will stop selling gas guzzlers by 2030, moving solely to electric vehicles

Volvo is the latest car manufacturer to explore going fully electric.

by
Joe Rice-Jones
March 2, 2021

Image: Volvo

Your next Volvo is likely to be all-electric, as the Swedish carmaker has said it will only sell electric cars by 2030. It’s already in the process of phasing out its diesel, gas, and hybrid options, with the aim to have half of its car sales to be all-electric by 2025.

Apparently, customers can’t get enough of the XC40 Recharge, Volvo’s first all-electric car which was released last year. The 200-mile range of that SUV is lower than some of the competition, but it can charge to 80-percent capacity in only 40 minutes, making range anxiety a thing of the past. That success led to a rethink of Volvo’s earlier plans, and an acceleration of its plans to go all-electric.

The carmaker is also planning on taking its electric vehicle sales online only in the “coming years,” following Tesla’s change to online sales after closing most of its physical locations in 2019. That’s likely a cost-saving move, as the shift to online sales will let the company cut operating costs substantially.

To keep customers happy with the change, Volvo says it will offer fewer cars with “more transparent pricing.” The company is aiming to become a “leader in the fast-growing premium electric segment,” according to the chief executive, Håkan Samuelsson.

It seems the days of fossil fuel are coming to an end, with Volvo echoing the consensus of the higher-end brands. Both Jaguar and Bentley are planning shifts to electric-only vehicles within the next decade, perhaps showing that the high-end of the car market wants to stop using gas guzzlers.

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