London, UK (CNN) – Volvo carmaker announced on Tuesday that by 2030 it will stop selling cars that run on fossil fuels, as part of an accelerating trend within the industry to respond to pressures to tackle the climate crisis, adding that its new electric cars will be available. For online sale only.
The Swedish brand said that as part of the transformation, it wants half of its sales in 2025 to be electric cars, and the other half to hybrid cars, which means that it will stop selling cars that run on gasoline or diesel only after 4 years from now.
The targets are fierce for a company that has only brought to market a single all-electric vehicle, the XC40 Recharge, but they also reflect a growing consensus that carmakers cannot delay switching to electric cars without losing customers and angering regulators.
“There is no long-term future for cars with internal combustion engines,” said Henrik Green, chief technology officer at Volvo, in a statement, adding that the move to selling electric cars only would allow Volvo to meet “our customers’ expectations to be part of the solution when It’s about fighting climate change. “
Volvo said it will invest heavily in online sales and “drastically reduce” the complexity of its product offerings as prices become transparent. The strategy is similar to that used by Tesla, a leader in the electric car market, which only sells its cars over the Internet.
The announcement comes less than a week after Volvo’s Chinese owner, Geely, canceled plans to merge the carmakers. China’s largest autonomous car maker said the two companies would maintain their independent corporate structure, although they would share electric and autonomous driving technologies.
Other car manufacturers have announced plans in recent months to accelerate their transition to electric cars. Ford said in February that it plans to sell electric passenger cars only in Europe by 2030, while General Motors recently announced It aims to sell zero-emissions cars only by 2035.
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