Volvo: No more "ICE, ICE," baby

No more internal combustion engine only cars after 2019, sayeth the Chinese-owned Swedish car company. Apparently their Asian overlords, Geely, are hyperfocused on electrics for the Chinese market, naturally enough (Tesla is interested big time too), and Volvo is moving everything to hybrids and pure electrics. Polestar, their little-known but kinda cool performance line, is already ditching gas engines, and the rest of the lineup is following suit.

I'm guessing the Chinese auto market is not that big above the arctic circle. I wonder whether Volvo is going to be able to work effectively on solving some of the cold-weather issues with electrics. This could be a real boon to overall electric car development, if this Scandinavian marque can lead the way in battery tech that works at constant, chronic sub-zero temps.

Perhaps in the future the Polestar emblem on the back of the car will equate to Ludicrous.

The Fed said:

Perhaps in the future the Polestar emblem on the back of the car will equate to Ludicrous.

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I am guessing that's exactly their target. They've no doubt seen that people will pay a lot for faster electrics, so why not double down and make a whole marque devoted to that? BMW is moving some or all of their M lineup to hybrids/electrics, gradually but probably sooner rather than later.

Pretty soon I'm guessing the sheer physics advantages of electric power in performance cars will push everyone over the tipping point. The last to go will probably be American pony car and muscle car makers, because I can't imagine your average Challenger buyer going for an electric. But Camaro buyers, hmm, yeah, given how that car has evolved into a well-rounded performance machine.