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Volvo Says It Will Only Make Electric and Hybrid Cars Starting in 2019 (npr.org)
Volvo has announced that starting in 2019, all of the new models it produces will be electric or hybrid. From a report: "This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car," said Hakan Samuelsson, Volvo president and chief executive, in a statement. "Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1 million electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it." The move makes Volvo the first traditional automaker to set a date to phase out cars powered only by internal combustion engines, Reuters reports. The company said it will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021. Three of these will be Volvos, and two will be sold under the company's Polestar "electrified performance brand."
So this announcement makes sense
Somewhere in the world right now, Jeremy Clarkson is banging his head against a dashboard.
Dear Diary...today I was pompous and my sister was crazy.
The title is directly contradicted by the first line of the summary. Great job!
Failed automaker puts final nail in their coffin.
I wasn't going to buy one of those pieces of crap, anyway, and now they won't even make the type of car that I would consider buying.
Sounds like they are planning to produce mostly Hybrids, with a few all electric niche models. Hybrids are a good step.
sorry
> Polestar "electrified performance brand."
Uhhh, should we tell them that's not a great brand name in north america?
Volvo now has every incentive to make quicker progress on hybrid engines and electric motors than their otherwise ICE-involved competitors might. Of course, it may just be their board's latest brain fart as interpreted by their CEO, too. Time will tell. All I know is that it's a gutsy move.
That is all.
From a different article :
"The switch is taking place because costly after-treatment systems will be needed to make diesels comply with tougher emissions regulations."
So - the govt is pressuring the markets, not the consumers. Surely this will end well.
Volvo sucks. American cars suck. The only cars that matter are German.
If you can't afford a proper German car (Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc.) then you should save your money until you can. Ride public transit with the rest of the poor people until that great day when you, too, can drive home in a proper German car.
All automakers are going to more or less follow suit soon enough. The benefits of a mild hybrid system far outweigh the essentially nonexistent drawbacks, and if you actually convert the whole car to 48V, then there really are no drawbacks.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If you read the actual article what is meant is that starting in 2019 5 new model lines will be electric only, not that they will be changing all their existing models to electric. Given their model cycle it'll be a decade past that before all of their cars are electric or hybrid.
The internal combustion powered engine and the automobiles they live in are far from becoming a thing of the past.
This announcement is either a PR ploy which isn't serious or represents a self inflicted wound that will kill them.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Some people prefer to buy fast cars (like my corvette.) Until we can expect the same performance and range, there will always be a market for internet combustion engines.
Hybrid? Who said anything about hybrid? These cars will be self-driving cars but will have the Swiss eject when the automobile detects a human in the driver seat trying to give verbal commands.
FTFA: "While all of its new car lines will be "electrified" starting in 2019, for a few years Volvo will continue production of existing models that don't have electric motors."
All automobile manufacturers project the cost to buy a fossil fuel vehicle will be more than for an all electric vehicle starting next model year.
(yes, I invest in automobile firms, sorry if you never read the internal news)
Adapt. Nobody cares for your failed fossil fuel religion.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Hopefully it's going to work for them. I'm a bit surprised they have (or are projected to have) that much market demand but good on them!
I'd love to have an electric SUV, once they shave a zero off the pricetag. That'll be a bit.
Ferret
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
That and subsidized home high voltage charger installation. You want this technology adopted quicker? Give people an incentive rather than putting roadblocks in their way.
Is this an announcement that Volvo is getting out of the heavy truck market? They make some of the best equipment in that market.
Volvo is a high-end, low-volume manufacturer. Worldwide sales are about half a million out of total worldwide sales of nearly 90 million.
Whether this is a smart move in their chosen market segment remains to be seen. But it's not going to noticeably move the needle in the overall market.
What surprises me is that all major manufactures didn't start towards this years ago. IC Engines are dreadfully inefficient, difficult to engineer/manufacture & can be a pain to integrate into different frames. I think the only thing that has kept ICs in the game is that the logistics chain is already there and perhaps partly the limitations of batteries. But with Hybrids (non idiotic ones anyways) most of those issues go away, just use an electric drivetrain, a small battery/capacitor pack and a very small IC/Turbine generator to keep the system in the green. You get a major efficiency boost from regenerative braking, limited idle time, an efficient generator design due to the lack of RPM range, decreased weight due to the lack of a heavy IC engine (and heavy battery pack), etc and a much more simple design and manufacturing chain.
I remember when I was a kid, growing up in Miami. We would go to the unlimited hydroplane races at Marine Stadium on Key Biscayne. Back then, all the Unlimited Hydro's were powered by Rolls Royce Merlin engines. Yea, surplus engines from P-51's and Spitfires. There was/is nothing like the sound of that Merlin engine screaming by. If you've never heard it, I can't explain it. Fast forward a few years into the future, and I attend the Hydro races in Detroit, and all the unlimited Hydro's are using jet engines. The go by and it's just a "whoosh" sound. All the fun and excitement were gone. Last Hydro race I ever went to. Or take a dragster or funny car burning Nitro, that sound, that smell. Yea, the electrics and jet powered race vehicles may be faster, but they're just boring. This may sound silly, but soon there will be a generation that never knows the sound of a tightly tuned internal combustion engine on a Formula 1 or even a Ducati. We won't even get behind the wheel, we will just whoosh along in boring electric vehicles. I think Jeff Beck said about self driving cars, who the hell would want that. What's the fun in that. Hell, I even miss the sound of a raspy old Bultaco, Husky or CZ 2-Stroke. I'll go back to yelling at the clouds now.
The summary as it stands does not say what it means to say. Why is it so hard to position the word "only" in the right place in a sentence?
The first time you read the title, it seems like Volvo will only sell electric cars in 2 years time and they will become another Tesla.
Then, if you pay attention, it says that starting 2019, all new models will have an electric engine in them. Yes, this includes mild hybrids, basically energy recovery systems where the electric engine only gives a boost, but it's too small to drive on electric power alone. And yes, they will keep producing the old models for a while.
This is good news, but by no means earth-shattering. I understand most of the European manufacturers will introduce mild hybrids across their range, due to very strict emission standards coming 2020. A PR coup for Volvo, for making public a decision that everyone in the industry will eventually take, and soon.
Volvo will be out of business by 2025.
Ford and GM will eat Volvo's "shorts" by selling gasoline engine cars in Europe!
Time to buy F and GM stock!
Am I the only one who saw Polestar and thought "stripper"? Excuse me, "exotic dancer".
Someone had better tell toyota, they've been making them over a decade now! how the heck are they not bankrupt?
Volvo actually announced that all newly designed cars released after 2018 would be partially electric. They did NOT say they would make no more gas-only cars. They have just released the new 2018 XC60 the 2nd version of their largest selling car. They have released several other gas-only cars recently. All of those cars will be in production for many years.
Also, do the math. They said their goal is to have about 1M e-cars by 2025 - 8 new model years from now. They sell about 500K cars per year and have high hopes for strong increases in total sales with all their recent gas-only models.
Not what you were describing above as you well know when you wrote " People do clutchless shifting all the time once they learn the proper way to do it".
What's with the utterly shameless desire to "win" all the time? It's just like when you were trying to tell people earlier that plutonium is some harmless thing that doesn't need to be treated with respect.
in the meantime... countries like Denmark, will continue to depend deeply on gasoline and diesel powered busses, cars, trucks, trains, boats, airplanes etc.... because of extreme taxes!
I am not yet 40! Still I most likely won't live long enough to see electric vehicles become dominant in Denmark.
I drive around in an old diesel car without filter, because new cars and especially electric cars are crazy expensive!
Try justifying buying a Tesla at 3 times its normal cost, because of taxes!
At this rate, CUBA and the rest of the world, will have electric only cars, long before Denmark!
What's with clueless people delivering lectures on topics they know very little about after an obvious fuckup? If you had been studying engineering in the late 1990s I could have been one of your "professors" that you are using as your appeal to authority.
The pedal is a different thing to the plate!
Just look it up! Take a look at the model T transmission and brake bands while you are at it since that is simple enough that it will add to your understanding of what you were trying to describe above with your shifted goalposts.