Volvo Cars has announced that it will build its first fully electric car in China, as part of its larger commitment to sell a total of 1 million electrified cars – including fully electric cars and hybrids – by 2025.
According to the automaker, the all-new model will be based on Volvo’s Compact Modular Architecture for smaller cars, and it will be available for sale in 2019 and exported globally from China.
Volvo Cars says the decision to make its first electric car in China highlights the central role the country will play in Volvo’s electrified future and underlines China’s growing sophistication as a manufacturing center for the automotive industry.
“Volvo Cars fully supports the Chinese government’s call for cleaner air as outlined in the latest five-year plan. It is fully in line with our own core values of environmental care, quality and safety,” says Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo Cars. “We believe that electrification is the answer to sustainable mobility.”
As it currently stands, China is the world’s largest sales market for electrified cars, with ambitious targets to expand sales of fully electric and hybrid vehicles in order to address congestion and air quality issues in its cities.
Volvo says it is also developing a fully electric car on its Scalable Product Architecture, and it plans to offer plug-in hybrid versions of every model.