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Nigerian users of Volvo
cars should be getting ready to adapt to a new technology, as Volvo is
targeting 2019 to phase out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion
engine.
In its place, the company
says that all Volvo car models launched thereafter will be electric or hybrids.
Volvo made the announcement recently.
With the announcement, the
Chinese-owned company becomes the first major traditional automaker to set a
date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine.
The Sweden-based company
will continue to produce pure combustion-engine Volvos from models launched
before that date, but its move signals the eventual end of nearly a century of
Volvos powered solely that way.
While electric and hybrid
vehicles are still only a small fraction of new cars sales, they are gaining
ground at the premium end of the market, where Volvo operates and where Elon
Musk’s Tesla Motors has been a pure-play battery carmaker from day one. As
technology improves and prices fall, many in the industry expect mass-market
adoption to follow.
“This announcement marks
the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan
Samuelsson said.
The company, owned by
Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said five new models set to be launched in 2019
through 2021 – three of them Volvos and two Polestar-branded – would all be
fully electric.
“These five cars will be
supplemented by a range of petrol and diesel plug in hybrid and mild hybrid 48-volt
options on all models,” Volvo said. “This means that there will in future be no
Volvo cars without an electric motor.”
Additional report by Reuters
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