Photo: Volvo
As we’ve previously reported, Volvo is making a significant push into the electric vehicle market. Its short-term goal is to have roughly 50 percent of its global sales made up of EVs by 2025. In the first four months of 2020, the automaker showed strong progress towards that milestone, as 14 percent of its sales in that period were plug-in vehicles.
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CleanTechnica writer Zachary Shahan reports that Volvo doubled the percentage of plug-in sales compared to the same four months in 2019. Last year from January to April, 7 percent of sales were plug-in units — and most of those were variants of pre-existing gasoline vehicles.
If Volvo can maintain this momentum — doubling its progress every year — it will hit 56 percent by the end of 2022. However, that may be a bit ambitious. If we suppose that the automaker manages a seven percent increase each year, it won’t hit that 56 percent mark until 2026. That’s slightly less ideal vis-à-vis crossing the finish line by the intended date.
However, there are other factors to consider. First, Volvo is in the process of rolling out numerous EVs, starting with the XC40 Recharge. That means an increasing number of Volvo’s available vehicles will be electrified, making it more likely that people will notice and buy them. Second, the company has opted to adopt environmental standards that are stricter than national requirements, which means that it has a vested interest in developing and marketing efficient vehicles. Third, Volvo’s EVs will come with wildly appealing incentives like one full year of free charging costs.
Put together, there are a lot of reasons to believe that hitting 14 percent in 2020 is just the beginning of Volvo’s electric expansion.
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