Volvo Invests In A Fully Electric Future
Volvo is making large moves towards their aim to have their fully electric cars to make up 50 per cent of its global sales volume by 2025. Volvo’s first battery assembly line is already under construction at its manufacturing plant in Ghent, Belgium. It will be finalised by the end of this year, 2019. The first fully electric Volvo to be built in Ghent will be the XC40 SUV. Already now, plug-in hybrid variants of the XC40 are manufactured there.
“Volvo Car Group has signed long-term agreements with leading battery makers CATL and LG Chem to ensure the multi-billion dollar supply of lithium ion batteries over the coming decade for next generation Volvo and Polestar models.” Volvo Press announced today, Wednesday the 15th of May.
“The future of Volvo Cars is electric and we are firmly committed to moving beyond the internal combustion engine.Today’s agreements with CATL and LG Chem demonstrate how we will reach our ambitious electrification targets.” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars.
We are not one bit surprised by this move and Volvo is not alone in this major move towards fully electric fleets.
Recently Volkswagen is rumored to be building plans to build a battery facility later this year in Germany. Volkswagen workers have recently heard rumors about the company spending $1.2 Billion USD to build this new location that is focused solely on building their own batteries for their electric and hybrid vehicles.
“Volkswagen workers backed a restructuring of the world’s largest carmaker on Tuesday after Chief Executive Herbert Diess pledged to spend 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) on a new battery cell production plant near its headquarters in Lower Saxony.”
This trend is starting to look a lot like the future of transportation. While we are not surprised, we are interested to see big brands like Volvo and Volkswagen make such big investments in this sector, and giving solidified brands in this market like Tesla a run for their money.
Would you drive a fully electric Volvo?
- T8 Twin Engine on SPA
“The T8 Twin Engine is a plug-in electric car, hybrid car and high-performance car rolled into one. A two-litre, four-cylinder supercharged and turbocharged Drive-E petrol engine powers the front wheels and an 80 hp (60 kW) electric motor drives the rear wheels. The battery pack is located in the centre of the vehicle.”
- CMA Battery Electric Vehicle Technical Concept Study - Top view
“Volvo Cars' goal of having over 1 million electrified cars on the road by 2025 might sound ambitious, but it has the technology and the design language to make that a reality.”
- Plug-in hybrid battery pack mounted in an XC40 at Volvo Cars’ Ghent plant
