All Volvo cars to have electric motor by 2019

VOLVO HAS become the first traditional car maker to announce that all of its new models will have an electric motor.

From 2019, the Swedish manufacturer will only launch cars that are either pure electric or hybrids combining electric and conventional engines.

Volvo Cars president Hakan Samuelsson said the step “marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car”.

He went on: “This is about the customer.

“People increasingly demand electrified cars and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs.”

The firm will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021, three of which will be Volvos and two from Polestar, its high-performance car arm.

Mr Samuelsson added: “Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1m electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it.”

Air pollution is linked to an estimated 40,000 early deaths a year in the UK and 37 out of 43 areas are exceeding EU legal limits for nitrogen dioxide, much of which comes from diesel engines.

Greenpeace UK clean air campaigner Paul Morozzo said: “We know electric vehicles are the future, and it’s not a case of if, but when, old style cars powered by climate wrecking fossil fuels will be a thing of the past.”

Latest figures show 730,000 new alternatively fuelled vehicles have been bought in the UK so far this year – 4.2 per cent of the market. Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said the leap to pure electric may be “too much” for some motorists but there were around 320,000 hybrids on Britain’s roads at the end of last year – 10 times the number of battery-only cars.