Volvo Cars will be working towards the goal of selling up to 1 million “electrified” cars by the year 2025, according to a new press release from the Swedish company.
“Electrified” cars in this case apparently refers to hybrids as well plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and all-electric vehicles (EVs). The company’s plans to achieve the goal calls for the offering of at least 2 hybrid versions of every model in the company’s model-range.
“It is a deliberately ambitious target,” stated Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO. “It is going to be a challenge, but Volvo wants to be at the forefront of this shift to electrification.”
Here’s more from the press release:
Volvo Cars has been readying itself for the emergence of electrified vehicles for the last five years. It has developed two all new vehicle architectures for larger and smaller cars — Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) and Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) — that can incorporate either hybrid or fully electric car technology. Its larger 90 series and 60 series cars are to be built on SPA, and it will soon launch a global range of smaller 40 series cars on CMA. All of these cars will have electrified versions. The 1 million electrified car target is a cumulative total.
The new electrified car pledge forms part of a wide ranging review of Volvo’s strategic sustainability programme announced today that contains several new commitments that place sustainability at the centre of its future business operations. The new commitment has been christened ‘omtanke’, which is a Swedish word that means ‘consideration’ or ‘caring’.
The company is also working to achieve “climate neutral” operations by 2025. In addition, the company is working to ensure that “35% of its leading positions held by women by 2020, (and) move further towards its vision that by 2020 no one will be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo.”
“Sustainability is nothing new or something that sits outside our operations, it is something that forms an integral part of everything we do. It is simply our way of operating,” continued Mr Samuelsson. “This new sustainability commitment reflects Volvo Cars’ fundamental belief that we must also grow responsibly.”
More information can be found in the company’s recent Sustainability Report for 2015.