All Volvo cars to run with electric engines from 2019

Volvo on Wednesday called time on the internal combustion engine in a bid to get ahead in the race to sell electric cars to the mass market.

The Chinese-Swedish carmaker has said that, from 2019, all of its models will be powered by electric engines.

From that point on it will make only pure electric cars, plug-in hybrids and a third type of hybrid with a small petrol engine and a large battery.

“People increasingly demand electrified cars and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs,” said Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive.

Volvo had already declared it would produce one million battery cars by 2025 and ending production of cars with conventional engines shows its dedication to the target. It plans to launch five fully electric models between 2019 and 2021.

Volvo’s Chinese owner, Geely, appears to have galvanised the carmaker. Almost 265,000 pure electric cars were sold in China last year, versus 110,000 across Europe.

Volvo’s claim marks the first serious challenge to Tesla, the luxury electric car maker.