A new era starts at Volvo as it decides to go all electric.
A new era
Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson’s has promised that from 2019 all the cars it launches will have the option of a fully electric drive train, conventional engine/electric hybrid or “mild” hybrid that assists a conventional engine shows the industry is now taking electric seriously.
Elon Musk’s Tesla regularly grabs headlines with its all-electric cars but the company punches considerably above its weight when you consider that it produced only 76,000 cars last year. By comparison, Volvo sold seven times that amount. VW Group, which overtook Toyota as the world’s largest car company in January, sold 10.3m.
Game changers
Non-polluting electric cars - at least at the level of the exhaust pipe, if they even have them - have yet to break into the mass market.
Cars currently available to buy from Tesla start at about £60,000 and Volvo’s range is firmly at the premium end of the sector.
However, that one of the world's major manufacturers is willing to make such a bold pledge will certainly have other automotive giants sitting up and taking notice.
Edmund King, president of the AA, described Volvo’s move as a “significant moment which shows a major manufacturer is fully committed to the technology”.
“We are getting to a tipping point for electric vehicles. When we get a mass market car that’s electric and has a range of 200 miles, that’s when we will see real change,” he said. “Other manufacturers are thinking that this is going to be a game changer.”
Toyota was an early mover in the sector with its Prius hybrids. These combine conventional and electric power systems and the technology now makes up more than 10pc of the company’s global sales, but the Japanese giant has yet to embrace electric across its vast range. In fact, the company is even looking at hydrogen power as an even more environmentally friendly alternative.
Reeling from the “dieselgate” scandal, VW has pledged billions of investment into electric cars having previously focused on what it saw as the fuel economy benefits of diesel. However, it is yet to offer it in mainstream vehicles.
Electric cars still have a long way to go. I've been in one and it just feel like I'm sitting in a toy car.
Then you're doing it wrong.
;-)
I've been in a Nissan Leaf and I can totally share that sentiment @marcusxman - not the best car to impress the girls!
I am not sure about electric cars but I have read and watched a lot about electric motorbikes and they are definitely not toys. Although they do sound like them. They have the full amount of torque available almost immediately, they accelerate like stink!
Unfortunately I see all things electrical on the cards and what I think I will miss is the revving noise of the engine. Electric cars are so quiet that they are hazardous to pedestrians and that artificial engine sound is made to mimick the real thing. It makes it so superficial. There must also be a similar problem with motorbikes!
There totally is and I am in complete agreement, you can't beat the roar of an engine. If you are successful enough to buy yourself a fast car then you want to shout about it.
But I also tend to think there is an elegance to the whizzing noise you get from an electric one.
I seriously don't think that they should be trying to add fake engine notes to electric vehicles. To me that is like adding a mane to a dog and calling it a lion.
The whizzing noise is just what you will get in sci-fi movies. So sci-fi movies is a glimpse into the future.
Ive always wanted an electric car, I feel like its such a waste of money every time I fill my truck. Hopefully they will get more affordable quickly so I can have one!
P.S. I'll let you into a secret ... I want one too! But a Honda :)
@mindhunter you sure you don't want one like this.
WOW! That would make a cool Steeming on vid Adam!!
Cool!
More ecological cars!!!
Full-eco mode ahead for Volvo @dimarss :)
Times are changing before our eyes. I for one still love a nice beefy V8 gas fed muscle car!
Oh yes Siree!! :)
"Reeling from the “dieselgate” scandal,"
Yep, virtue signalling on a corporate level. Electric cars do not appear ready for mass adoption.
Tesla are currently setting a pace that others must follow whether they like it or not. There is just too much money to be made.
Sure feels good working at Volvo right now!
I'd love to work for Honda if I chose a manufacturer to work for :)