Half of Volvo registrations to be fully-electric cars by mid-2020s

Volvo Cars is expecting half of its sales to be fully-electric cars by the middle of the next decade, with one-third of all cars to be autonomous driving cars.

The expectation is outlined as part of new financial and operational ambitions that will position the company as a leading player in the global automotive business.

It also expects half of all cars it offers to customers to be through its subscription service.

Hakan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, said: “Our customers’ expectations are changing rapidly. This means that Volvo Cars is also changing rapidly.

“These initiatives will help transform Volvo from being purely a car company to being a direct consumer services provider.”

Volvo Cars aims to build more than five million direct consumer relationships by the middle of the next decade, creating new sources of recurring revenue.

This will also offer the company far greater potential to develop connected and other services for customers.

On the financial side, Volvo Cars aims to generate premium-level profitability in line with other premium car makers, driven by increased sales and revenues across all three global sales regions, and a broader range of cars, including sales to the new segment of autonomous ride-hailing companies.

The company’s improved financial performance will also be driven increasingly in the future by industrial synergies generated with its affiliated partner companies.

Volvo Cars expects to benefit from lower procurement costs, shared development costs and economies of scale alongside Polestar, its premium performance electric car brand, and Lynk & Co, the new global car brand in which Volvo Cars owns a 30% stake.

• Volvo Cars will move away from exhibiting and launching vehicles at traditional events such as motor shows and focus more on bespoke events.

The company’s most recent new-car launches revealed the XC40 compact SUV at the 2017 Milan Fashion Week and unveiled the new V60 premium mid-size estate in the driveway of a suburban home in Stockholm.

Later this month, Volvo Cars will also launch its new S60 sports saloon at the inauguration of the company’s first US manufacturing plant, in Charleston, South Carolina.

As part of the company’s strategy to target a new mix of audiences and develop its own events, Volvo Cars has decided it will not attend the Geneva Motor Show in 2019.

Björn Annwall, senior vice-president of strategy, brand and retail at Volvo Cars, said: “The ongoing change in the car industry is creating new audiences for Volvo Cars and new ways of bringing products to the market.

“Automatic attendance at traditional industry events is no longer viable – we must tailor our communications based on how the options complement our messaging, timing and the nature of the technology we are presenting.”