Volvo to go all EV or hybrid by 2019

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Volvo goes electric, ditches cars powered solely by gas

HELSINKI (AP) ? Volvo plans to build only electric and hybrid vehicles starting in 2019, making it the first major automaker to abandon cars and SUVs powered solely by the internal combustion engine.

CEO Hakan Samuelsson said the move was dictated by customer demand. It means that in two years, all new Volvo vehicles will have some form of electric propulsion.

The announcement comes as the global auto industry slowly moves toward electric-powered vehicles after more than a century of using engines that burn only fossil fuels. Even though sales are a fraction of conventional autos, companies must sell them to meet fuel economy and emissions regulations. In some markets electric vehicles are seeing increased demand.

Yet the transition to fully electric vehicles will take years. Although Tesla Inc. has announced a $35,000 electric car for the masses and General Motors Co. is selling the all-electric Chevy Bolt for a similar price, less-expensive hybrids are likely to sell more at least in the short run.

Still, other automakers are likely to follow Volvo's announcement in a few years, said Sam Abuelsamid, senior analyst for Navigant Research, with luxury automakers leading the way.

"I think we'll probably see most of the premium brands do the same thing in roughly the same time frame," he said. "More high-volume mainstream brands will be a little slower."

In order to meet government fuel economy requirements worldwide, automakers are developing more hybrid systems. Many are 48-volt "mild hybrids" that assist a gas engine to move a car to make it more efficient, improving gas mileage by 10 or 15 percent, Abuelsamid said.

Such systems generate enough electricity to allow automakers to move functions such as air conditioners and water and oil pumps to electric power, getting rid of mechanical belts that are a drag on the engine. Those systems can run only when needed, and that can save another 2 or 3 percent on fuel consumption ? so a vehicle that gets 20 mpg could get about another four miles per gallon, he said.

European luxury brands such as Audi and Mercedes-Benz already are rolling out mild hybrid cars in Europe. Those systems likely will be coming to the U.S. because it's expensive for the companies to build different cars for different markets, Abuelsamid said. General Motors and others already have such systems as options on some models in the U.S.

All manufacturers are moving toward more hybrids, but the transition to 100 percent electric vehicles is still years away, said Darren Jukes, head of industrial products for the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. "I don't think we're seeing the end of combustion engines just yet," Jukes said.

Fully electric and hybrid vehicle sales have risen a little since 2012 but still accounted for only 2.6 million, or about 3 percent of worldwide new vehicle sales, last year. Navigant predicts that will increase to around 3.7 million in 2018 and to more than 9 million by 2025. That's about 9 percent of sales.

Volvo's announcement, coupled with some negative analyst notes and Monday's announcement of lower than expected production, weighed on Tesla's stock Wednesday. Shares of the Palo Alto, California, company closed down 7.2 percent to $327.09.

Volvo, which is based in Sweden but owned by Chinese firm Geely, will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021. Three of them will be Volvo models and two will be electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo Cars' performance car arm. It also plans to offer a range of hybrids as options, expecting to sell 1 million electrified cars by 2025.

The company said its long range models could travel 500 kilometers (310 miles) on a single charge using current technology, but it is looking for suppliers of new and better batteries.

Samuelsson, who acknowledged that the company had been skeptical about electrification only two years ago, said circumstances have changed. "Things have moved faster; customer demand is increasing," he said.

Last year, Volvo sold 534,332 cars in 100 countries, up more than 6 percent from 2015.
 
Translation: Chinese owners of Volvo have decided to commit brand suicide.
 
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Translation: Chinese owners of Volvo have decided to commit brand suicide.
No no. You have it wrong. :p

This is the Grand Sweeping Proclamation (Tm).

When the time actually comes, Volvo will quietly roll this back with various exceptions.

That or they want to lose their meager share of the sales pie in North America altogether, which won't sink them globally, but will be sure to piss off their dealer network.
 
a) the headline ignores that the vast majority, at least at the beginning, will be hybrids.
b) China is already the world's largest EV market, and their parent company is the largest producer of them, so they'll have a decent pushing-off point.
 
No no. You have it wrong. :p

This is the Grand Sweeping Proclamation (Tm).

When the time actually comes, Volvo will quietly roll this back with various exceptions.

That or they want to lose their meager share of the sales pie in North America altogether, which won't sink them globally, but will be sure to piss off their dealer network.

I figure they're trying to get more market share by attempting to attract people who really want to buy hybrids and EVs, the greenie types... which really isn't as many as they think.

As for their market share:
AutoBrand_Sales.png




Low and dropping lower. I'd say this is an act of desperation.
 
Let's keep in mind that this is Volvo. Most of the Volvo kind of people don't particularly care how their car drives, or why it drives the way it does. I guess it can help them in China, and go largely unnoticed elsewhere, particularly as hybrids will be available, which means that nothing much will change for the less observant car users.
 
Let's keep in mind that this is Volvo. Most of the Volvo kind of people don't particularly care how their car drives, or why it drives the way it does. I guess it can help them in China, and go largely unnoticed elsewhere, particularly as hybrids will be available, which means that nothing much will change for the less observant car users.

They'll notice the price increase - or the decontenting to compensate for the increase in cost to assemble.
 
Translation: Chinese owners of Volvo have decided to commit brand suicide.

no, they're saving their brand, and many brands will follow swiftly
since more and more cities are banning ICE cars from their centre, this is the only way forward, unless you want to go by bicycle...
 
France is planning to ban the sale of new ICE vehicles by 2040. Plenty of room currently on this bandwagon for governments and manufacturers alike.
 
They'll notice the price increase - or the decontenting to compensate for the increase in cost to assemble.

Ding ding ding! Winnar! :D

That's what immediately came to mind and what will happen.

France is planning to ban the sale of new ICE vehicles by 2040. Plenty of room currently on this bandwagon for governments and manufacturers alike.

Wow what a crock of shit. I guess the only good news is that won't happen in my lifetime here in North America. But I feel for the Euros. Just the thought of all electric and or self driving bullshit gives me the creeps and adds sadness.
 
Volvo to go all EV or hybrid by 2019

Let us not forget that Volvo is wholly owned by a Chinese corporation, which in turn is subject to intense governmental pressure to produce large amounts of EVs in the near term. Sounds like Geely is sending the Swedish lamb to the slaughter.

As to France, meh. The diesel country itself swearing off all ICE isn't particularly surprising, and the timeframe is actually reasonable. Just one point: like many nations (including mine), their energy sector is nationalized. This is a shell game (pun NOT intended).

Ok, a second point: who owns or controls the largest portion of the lithium battery-making process? It's China. What a coincidence...
 
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no, they're saving their brand, and many brands will follow swiftly
since more and more cities are banning ICE cars from their centre, this is the only way forward, unless you want to go by bicycle...

Not in North America, they're not. All data from GoodCarBadCar.net.

In 2016, Volvo sold 82,724 vehicles to the US market.

Of those, 32,526 were XC90s, 5425 were XC70s, 20,452 were XC60s. That means that way more than half the vehicles they sold were SUVs.

The North American SUV market is one where hybrids simply do not do well at all. People buying SUVs evidently mostly do not want hybrids, and it's not for lack of offerings; off the top of my head I can think of 12 SUVs offered in hybrid form in this market. The hybrid versions don't sell well if at all; SUV buyers evidently generally want gas engines without hybrid additions or to a lesser degree diesels.

So, if Volvo decides that they want to go all *EV or hybrid in just two years, there goes more than half of their very profitable US sales up in eco-smoke.
 
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Not in North America, they're not. All data from GoodCarBadCar.net.

In 2016, Volvo sold 82,724 vehicles to the US market.

Of those, 32,526 were XC90s, 5425 were XC70s, 20,452 were XC60s. That means that way more than half the vehicles they sold were SUVs.

The North American SUV market is one where hybrids simply do not do well at all. People buying SUVs evidently mostly do not want hybrids, and it's not for lack of offerings; off the top of my head I can think of 12 SUVs offered in hybrid form in this market. The hybrid versions don't sell well if at all; SUV buyers evidently generally want gas engines without hybrid additions or to a lesser degree diesels.

So, if Volvo decides that they want to go all *EV or hybrid in just two years, there goes more than half of their very profitable US sales up in eco-smoke.

Which makes sense because fuel savings are by and large negligible due to terrible aerodynamics. Cost is a factor, would you rather a CarPlay/Android Auto capable infotainment system, parking sensors, 360 degree cameras or a shitty electric motor? And cargo space is decreased due to the big ass battery - you know one of the biggest reasons to even go for an SUV?

- - - Updated - - -

France is planning to ban the sale of new ICE vehicles by 2040. Plenty of room currently on this bandwagon for governments and manufacturers alike.

Considering that current French government won't be in power I have serious doubts.
 
Not in North America, they're not. All data from GoodCarBadCar.net.

In 2016, Volvo sold 82,724 vehicles to the US market.

Of those, 32,526 were XC90s, 5425 were XC70s, 20,452 were XC60s. That means that way more than half the vehicles they sold were SUVs.

Wow, seriously? Only ~82k vehicles sold in the US...TOTAL? Wow, that just amazes me so I went to that website and found...this:

2016 Volvos in the US: 82,724
2016 Dodge Chargers in the US: 95,437
 
Many, many news outlets reported that Volvo will make only electric or hybrid cars from 2019 on, which is not what the company said.
Volvo used the word "electrified," which many reports assumed meant electric. It didn't.
(1) Volvo said new models starting in 2019 would be plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicles, or have a 48-volt mild-hybrid system (which means without a plug) available.
(2) The latter group will likely be, at least initially, the largest group of the three.
(3) The announcement only affects new models from 2019, so Volvo will keep existing vehicles now using gasoline or diesel engines in production for ... well, several years to come yet.
In other words, Volvo will ensure that all of the cars it launches?starting two years from now?are capable of accepting enhanced start-stop hardware, aka 48-volt mild hybrids.



http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1111413_hey-media-get-it-straight-electrified-is-not-electric-and-the-difference-matters
 
Hahaha! What a crock of shit. Do you suppose that was some backpedaling from Volvo after the public backlash?
 
Hahaha! What a crock of shit. Do you suppose that was some backpedaling from Volvo after the public backlash?
No back pedaling, that is actually what Volvo said from the beginning. If the media had read and understood what was written. It is the reporting that is miserable.

Volvo clearly stated that they included mild hybrids in the electrification plans.
 
No back pedaling, that is actually what Volvo said from the beginning. If the media had read and understood what was written. It is the reporting that is miserable.

Volvo clearly stated that they included mild hybrids in the electrification plans.

Then I guess I must of missed it as well. :blink: Still, my point of the price increasing will still be true. :mrgreen:
 
I think one thing that remains unclear is that they didn't mean that the most basic kind of electrification is a parallel hybrid. They're including mild hybrids with outsized alternators as game under this announcement. And those won't scare anyone. They won't even add that much to the bottom line.

I think this is a worthwhile strategy and one a lot better to brag about than the "4cyl max" strategy that they're also employing. Volvo can't trade on safety and practicality alone. They aren't unique enough. But finding ways to make their products different has always been important to them and this is a good idea, especially if they don't need to shell out on the engineering costs alone.
 
No back pedaling, that is actually what Volvo said from the beginning. If the media had read and understood what was written. It is the reporting that is miserable.

Volvo clearly stated that they included mild hybrids in the electrification plans.

That's what I expected given their deadline and my comments still stand. We've had a lot of hybrid and mild hybrid SUVs (though full hybrids are offered) in this market and most potential buyers simply aren't interested.

Case in point: The Suburban/Tahoe series of large SUVs from GM (and their corporate siblings) are the best sellers in their class. Their combined sales handily outpace the competition by not a small margin. In the 2007-2014 version, called the GMT900, GM offered a hybrid option that reviewed well plus had some interesting and innovative features.

chevrolet_100233498_l.jpg


(Yes, you could get it without the "H Y B R I D" decal.) So, if a hybrid system in an SUV was going to sell at all here, you would expect a competent system (as this one was) offered on a very popular SUV to sell well.

https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/chevrolet-tahoe-hybrid-and-siblings-to-be-cancelled-207769

Shoppers interested in a hybrid SUV don't have many choices -- and soon, they'll have even fewer. General Motors recently announced it's pulling the plug on hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade.

The SUVs' poor sales are the primary reason for GM's decision. Last year, Chevrolet sold just over 500 Tahoe Hybrids, compared to nearly 70,000 Tahoe models overall. The numbers weren't much better for the Escalade Hybrid and Yukon Hybrid, which combined for around 1,200 sales out of more than 40,000 total.

Fuel economy was also an issue. The base-level Tahoe returns 15 miles per gallon city and 21 mpg on the highway, while the Tahoe Hybrid reaches 20 mpg city and 23 mpg highway. The increase was hardly enough to justify the added expense for many shoppers.

When the model refreshed, GM didn't bother carrying over the hybrid option. There was no reason to do so, as essentially nobody bought it.

If Volvo thinks hybrids are going to sell well in the US SUV market, they're in for a surprise. They've just decided to obliterate the sales they had here - few are going to pay between $7-15K (especially against the competition) more just to get a hybrid. Value is king in the US market and the value proposition for the increased cost of a hybrid is just not there for buyers of SUVs in the US. Even a mild hybrid isn't going to do well and the value proposition of those is even worse; the Saturn Vue was offered with it and they sold even fewer copies than the Tahoe hybrid even with huge discounts.

Further reading: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/01/abg-first-impressions-two-mode-hybrid-chevy-tahoe-and-gmc-yukon/

The Chrysler hybrid variants mentioned in the above linked article never sold well either (though a surprisingly high number of the non-hybrids were bought) and all were phased out years ago for lack of interest and buyers. The only survivor of this system is the Mercedes ML/GLE and basically nobody here buys them either. Nobody I've talked to at dealerships knows why this thing is even still on offer here other than maybe for some CAFE reason or something, because according to the dealer staffs the ML/GLE hybrid is a leading competitor for best lot anchor MBUSA.
 
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