Volvo plans to sell a million electrified cars by the end of...

Volvo plans to sell a million electrified cars by the end of 2025 as the Swedish car maker strives to reduce the emissions of its vehicles.

The “deliberately ambitious” goal is cumulative, but is double the number of cars it sells a year at the moment, writes Peter Campbell, Motor Industry Correspondent.
The company will produce a fully electric car in 2019 as well as offering two hybrid versions of every model in its range, it announced on Thursday.
Stringent EU rules come into into force in 2021 that will compel automakers to cut the average emissions across their range of cars sold.
Many car groups are turning to hybrid technology or fully electric vehicles in attempts to meet the targets.
Volvo chief executive Hakan Samuelsson said he wants the company to be “at the forefront” of the drive to electrification.
Volvo currently lags several of Europe’s larger luxury manufacturers in the arena.
BMW has produced the all-electric i3 as well as the i8 hybrid sedan.
But because the new rules will tally up the number of vehicles sold – rather than simply the types on offer to customers – car makers are banking on consumers turning to the technology in droves.
Adoption of fully electric cars – which would help car makers cut average emissions significantly – is held back by “range anxiety” where drivers are worried about running out of charge.
Volvo’s plans come as part of a sustainability drive that it hopes will make the company “climate neutral” by 2025. It also wants to have 35 per cent of its top jobs held by women by 2020.
The company, which has championed the safety features of its new models, has also pledged that “no one will be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo” by 2020.
Volvo, which is owned by Chinese group Geely, announced plans earlier this month to put 100 self-driving cars on the roads in China in order to test the technology. It is expected that the experiment will run in tandem with a similar project in the company’s home town of Gothenburg in Sweden, and is believed to start next year.
http://www.ft.com/fastft/2016/04/21/volvo-plans-to-sell-1m-electric-cars-by-2025/