Volvo's first electric car to be unveiled by 2019

Volvo recently announced plans to develop and manufacture its first fully electric car in China. This new EV will then also be exported to various other countries. The company is targeting to globally unveil the electric car in 2019. The aforementioned announcement was made during the Shanghai Motor Show.

The Swedish automaker has also claimed that its first electric vehicle will be based on the economy-size CMA platform, which it currently shares with Chinese carmaker Geely. Geely is also the owner of Volvo, which it had acquired from Ford in 2010. While the company has revealed the platform being used in its first electric car, it is yet to decide the architecture, name, specifications and other details for the said model.

Volvo's announcement to enter China's electric car market comes under rising pressure from the country's authorities to push the growth of alternative fuel in automobiles. While customers in the country are still showing unwillingness to invest in electric vehicles due to various limitations like low travel range & reliability issues, the Chinese administration is desperate to push the growth of EVs in the country. It is thus using a mix of incentives and penalties for global automakers in order to motivate them to invest in the electric car market.

China is already the world's biggest electric car market. Additionally, the country is offering some lucrative subsidies for electric car buyers as well as manufacturers, as part of its aim to limit the rising air pollution in major cities. This is further expected to propel the EV market's growth in the coming years. As a result, various global automakers like Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen and now Volvo, have revealed their plans to develop and manufacture electric cars in China.

Source: Economic Times