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Volvo has announced that it wants half of all its sales to be electric cars by 2025. Now, that requires a little context. Last year, Volvo made headlines by saying that it would offer electric or hybrid versions of every car it builds, starting from next year. Many took that up as Volvo saying that it would only offer electric cars from 2019, which isn't the case, but this new promise, made at the Beijing motor show, commits the Swedish company to a major ramp-up in pure-battery EV production.
The Chinese government plans to have new-energy vehicles account for more than 20 per cent of the country's annual car sales by 2025, which equates to more than seven million vehicles, based on Chinese government forecasts, and with Volvo now part of the huge Chinese car maker Geely, the Chinese home market is becoming ever more crucial to the Swedes.
"Last year we made a commitment to electrification in preparation for an era beyond the internal combustion engine," said Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Cars. "Today we reinforce and expand that commitment in the world's leading market for electrified cars. China's electric future is Volvo Cars' electric future."
Volvo already makes hybrid-electric cars in China - the S90 and S90L T8 twin engine plugin hybrid models - and it starts building the XC60 T8 plugin this week, meaning that soon all three Volvo Cars China plants - Luqiao, Chengdu and Daqing - will produce either plug-in hybrid or battery electric cars.
At the Beijing show, Volvo is also having the local Chinese launch for the new XC40 and is showing it alongside the XC60 and XC90, the first time that all of Volvo's SUV line-up has been shown in China. The XC40 will be a key cornerstone of the electric push - fully electric and T5 plugin hybrid versions are imminent.
The conventional version will be hugely significant for Volvo in China too, with the brand passing 100,000 sales in China for the first time last year, with growth of 23 per cent.