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Volvo to go all electric by 2030, hastening internal combustion's death

LONDON — VolvoÂ’s entire car lineup will be fully electric by 2030, the Chinese-owned Swedish company said on Tuesday, joining a growing number of carmakers planning to phase out fossil-fuel engines by the end of this decade.   “I am totally convinced there will be no customers who really want to stay with a petrol engine,” Volvo Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson told reporters when asked about future demand for electric vehicles. “We are convinced that an electric car is more attractive for customers.” The Swedish carmaker said 50% of its global sales should be fully-electric cars by 2025 and the other half hybrid models. Owned by Hangzhou-based Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Volvo will launch a new family of electric cars in the next few years, all of which will be sold online only. Volvo will unveil its second all-electric model, the C40, later on Tuesday. Samuelsson said Volvo will include wireless upgrades and fixes for its new electric models — an approach pioneered by electric carmaker Tesla Inc. Carmakers are racing to switch to zero-emission models as they face CO2 emissions targets in Europe and China, plus looming bans in some countries on fossil fuel vehicles. Last month, Ford said its lineup in Europe will be fully electric by 2030, while Tata Motors unit Jaguar Land Rover said its luxury Jaguar brand will be entirely electric by 2025 and the carmaker will launch electric models of its entire lineup by 2030. And last November, luxury carmaker Bentley, owned by GermanyÂ’s Volkswagen, said its models would be all electric by 2030. Electrification is expensive for carmakers, and as electric vehicles have fewer moving parts, auto employment is expected to shrink.    Volvo CEO Samuelsson said that industrywide, electrification will mostly affect engine plants and auto suppliers providing everything from oil filters to fuel injectors and spark plugs. “Those are a lot of jobs of course,” he said. “But overall I donÂ’t think there will be a big difference.” Volvo said it will “radically reduce” the complexity of its model line-up and provide customers with transparent pricing. The carmakerÂ’s global network of 2,400 traditional bricks-and-mortar dealers will remain open to service vehicles and to help customers make online orders.

Volvo confirms unnamed US model reveal for NY show

Tucked into the press release for the "display debut" of the Volvo V60 Plug-In Hybrid at the New York Auto Show, Volvo snuck in a single line announcing that it will also be introducing a new model for the North American market. As much as we'd love to see the svelte V40 on American roads, we're pretty sure the automaker is looking to fill its US station wagon void with the V60.
The 2014 Volvo V60 is part of a comprehensive lineup update that was unveiled earlier this month in Geneva, and it would give Volvo dealers a conventional wagon (not including the XC70) for the first time since the V70 and V50 were killed off. We'll still be keeping our fingers crossed for the stylish V40 hatchback or the fuel-efficient V60 diesel hybrid, but we have to wait until next week to find out for sure.

Russian auto boomtown grinds to halt over Ukraine sanctions

Thousands of auto workers have been furloughed and food prices are soaring as Western sanctions pummel the small Russian city of Kaluga and its flagship foreign carmakers, with more sanctions likely to come. The Kaluga region, 190 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of Moscow, says it has attracted more than 1.3 trillion roubles ($15 billion) in investment, mostly foreign, since 2006. But Western sanctions imposed in recent weeks after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine have exacerbated lingering component shortages and halted production at two flagship car plants, Germany's Volkswagen and Sweden's Volvo. A third, the PSMA Rus plant that is a joint venture between Stellantis and Mitsubishi and employs 2,000, may halt production soon due to a lack of parts, Stellantis' chief executive said last Thursday. "It is not clear what will happen. They don't give us any concrete information," said Pavel Terpugov, a welder at the PSMA Rus plant. Terpugov said he needs twice as much money to buy groceries than before the sanctions. Analysts have forecast Russian inflation could soar to 24% this year, while the economy may shrink to 2009 levels. The United States and Europe are weighing more sanctions against Russia after Ukraine accused Russian forces of civilian killings in northern Ukraine, where a mass grave was found in Bucha, outside Kyiv. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" and the Kremlin categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians, including in Bucha. One source of hope for some in Kaluga, with its 325,000 residents, is the West may be reluctant to hurt its own companies. "Does it make sense to impose sanctions on its own plant and lose money?" said Valery Uglov, an auto mechanic at the Volkswagen plant. "Does it make sense to lose the Russian market?" "We hope to return to work as soon as possible and everyone will have confidence in the future again," Uglov said. Volkswagen, whose factory employs 4,200 people, in early March suspended operations. A spokeswoman said production remained frozen. Volvo Group, which employs over 600 people to build trucks, also suspended production. Even before the sanctions, Russian car sales had contracted from 2.8 million units from when the Volkswagen factory opened in 2007 to 1.67 million units last year, damaged by both sanctions after the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the COVID-19 pandemic.