ROME – Volvo is thinking about electric and definitively cutting diesel: intending to sell only battery-powered cars from 2030, the Gothenburg company, acquired in 2010 by the Chinese Geely group, announced in recent days, during Climate Week in New York, which from next year will no longer produce any models with diesel engines which are currently represented by diesel hybrids.
The decision was motivated by Volvo CEO Jim Rowan as an obligatory step in the growing green evolution of the brand which has already led the Swedish company to finish the development of new combustion engines in 2022.
“Electric powertrains are our future and are superior to combustion engines,” says Rowan. “They are fundamental in our response to climate change, they generate less noise, less vibration, zero tailpipe emissions and require lower maintenance costs. We are completely focused on creating a broad portfolio of premium electric vehicles, which represent everything that customers expect they expect from us.”
Trends in the market, the manager always explains, have in fact changed quickly. “Only four years ago, diesel engines were the bread and butter of Europe for Volvo, but not only. They equipped the majority of our cars registered within the continent, while electrified models were timidly starting to make their way. This trend is however, it is slowly reversed due to the change in demand, also conditioned by increasingly strict emissions regulations. With the result that now the majority of our sales in Europe are made up of electrified cars, with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain. in, and there will be no going back.”