Volvo’s diesel era ends; to go fully electric by 2030
Volvo Car AB produced its last automobile with a diesel engine this week, ending an era for the manufacturer that plans to only make electric vehicles by 2030.
The XC90 sport utility vehicle rolled off the line at the Torslanda plant in Sweden on Tuesday evening. Volvo Car is phasing out the technology just as global demand for electric vehicles is cooling, though it’ll still make cars with gasoline engines.
‘QUITE CONFIDENT’
“We are quite confident that we have very good customer offers even without the diesel,” Erik Severinson, a Volvo Car executive in charge of new cars and operations strategy, said.
Other automakers have been strategically noncommittal about when they ex
In 2017, Volvo Car became the first major automaker to commit to phasing out vehicles powered solely by fossil fuels
pect to phase out combustion engines and some have backtracked on EV targets. MercedesBenz Group AG last month pushed back its sales forecast for the technology and now expects batterypowered vehicles to be stuck at less than half of its sales for longer than anticipated. Late last year, Audi said
it was paring back its EV rollout.
In the brand’s main market Europe, diesel cars peaked nine years ago, at around half of new sales. They slumped to 14 per cent of registrations last year.
The XC90 was key to the carmaker’s revival starting in 2014 when it was unveiled as the first car built on new underpinnings developed under the stewardship of Geely’s Li Shufu. Volvo Car will display the last XC90 made at a Volvo museum opening next month in Gothenburg. The topline SUV has an electric sibling, the EX90.
Marketed by Europe’s automakers as a cleaner alternative to gasoline, diesel had a successful run in the early years of the century. But demand cratered after Volkswagen AG admitted in 2015 that it fitted its diesel engines with software to cheat on emissions tests.
While Volvo Car will continue to support its diesel customers and offer spare parts, it’s not slowing on EVs as the technology still offers more growth in the long term, Severinson said.
“We believe our customers see the same kind of transition to green mobility as we do,” he said.