Since 2019, all Volvo cars will be equipped with electric motors or hybrid motors, said automaker CEO Hakan Samuelsson. Thus, Volvo became the first major car manufacturer, which announced the abandonment of traditional internal combustion engines.
"Volvo Cars has promised to sell 1 million electric vehicles by 2025, and we are used to fulfilling our promises," the Financial Times quoted him as saying. "That's how we intend to achieve this."
It is noted that after the acquisition of Chinese Geely in 2010, Volvo has intensified its efforts to develop and implement electric motors. China is the world's largest market for cars with such engines, and Geely is the only Chinese car company that delivers its products to the US, the second largest market.
Currently, the market of electric vehicles is relatively small - in 2016 less than 1% of the cars sold were equipped with electric motors. However, the popularity of such cars is growing - in January-March 2017, sales jumped by 40% in annual terms, to 191,700, according to the website EV-Volumes.com.
If such growth rates continue, by 2030 80% of all sold cars will go by electricity.
In Sweden, the stock market finished Wednesday session higher due to the strengthening of technology, industry, and consumer services sectors.
At the time of closing on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, OMX Stockholm 30 climbed 0.34%.
On the stock exchange of Stockholm, the number of depreciated securities (358) exceeded the number of those closed in positive territory (353), while the quotes of 82 shares remained virtually unchanged.
Meanwhile, EUR/SEK fell 0.31% to 9.6413, while USD/SEK fell 0.23% to 8.5061.