Volvo comments to release all cars after 2019 to be electric vehicles

Two decades ago the shift towards so-called new energy vehicles would have been considered science fiction.

During

the early development years at the Highland Industrial Center in

Michigan, workers were making the first mass market affordable car

constructed using a system of ropes and winches to pull the Model-T past

140 workers, bringing the assembly time down from 12 1/2 hours down to

93 minutes. This movementsparked a technological and social revolution.

Today, Volvo said it’s committing to the next exponential leap, moving away from the internal combustion engine.

“We

are making a strategic change in the future of our development,” Volvo

CEO Hakan Samuelsson said. “All cars released to the market after 2019

will be electrified. ”

Volvo’s

journey toward electrification has become more viable because it’s

parent company, the Chinese firm Geely, is a battery maker.

The

market for electric vehicles was previously the domain of those willing

to pay a premium for vehicles either with environmental credentials or

in the case of Tesla because of the high performance of a luxury brand.

Now Tesla has launched it’s much more affordable Model 3, its first

mass-production vehicle.

Some are convinced that the era of the electric car has come.

“People

are clearly into the idea of electric vehicles where they weren’t maybe

ten or fifteen years ago”, Alyssa Fischer, Global Policy Lead at World

Resources Institute says.

“It’s

lost a lot of that stigma that it used to have. And I think companies

realize that getting ahead of this curve they can become the shapers of

the space. ”

Audi is planning an all-electric SUV

with a 300-mile range for 2018, while BMW plans to introduce an electric

version of its popular 3 series this September.

General

Motors plans to launch 10 electric and gasoline-electric hybrid

vehicles in China by 2020 to compete with other Chinese manufacturers

making similar moves, like BYD and SAIC.

Technology

companies like Apple and Google’s Waymo brand are also moving into the

space, by leveraging expertise in developing self-driving technologies.

Given

the pressures on our urban environments as populations grow and more

people enter the middle class, companies are also planning for a future

where vehicles are increasingly shared and ordered using mobile apps.

Manufacturers

are also spurred on by government commitments in countries like Norway,

France and China and the United States, pressing ahead with higher

environmental standards and new incentives to signal that they too are

fully on board the car of the future.