Volvo Cars Plans to Double U.S. Footprint and Produce Only Electric Vehicles by 2030

Volvo Cars is piloting an aggressive push to go completely electric by the year 2030. As it turns out, this push is also expected to expand the company’s U.S. operations significantly over the next several years, according to the automaker’s President and CEO, Anders Gustafsson.

“We have had 100% growth [in the U.S.], the last five years, and we are planning for another 100 in the upcoming years,” Gustafsson said. “We will go from quite low production capacity to the highest capacity ever in the U.S. market. Therefore, we need to recruit more colleagues, more resources.”

The swedish luxury brand’s ambitious goal to only produce and sell electric vehicles by 2030 comes hot off the heels of the unveiling of its second battery-only model, the Volvo C40 Recharge. While this model will be manufactured in Ghent, Belgium, Volvo’s next generation EV, the Volvo XC90 SUV, will be manufactured in South Carolina for the U.S. market.

Although multiple automakers across the U.S. have also begun revving up their all-electric vehicle production goals, Volvo’s EV target is by far the most aggressive, especially considering that the brand has thus far only released one EV into the current market. In addition, Volvo expects half of its vehicles to be fully electric by 2025, with the other half being hybrids.

“It's very very tough to be kind of a number one or be good at two tasks at the same time. That's the reason why we will leave the development of combustion engines and go for a full focus on all our engineers into electrification,” Gustafsson said. “This is a very, very competitive industry.”

As part of this new shift in strategy, Volvo has also announced that these vehicles will only be available to purchase online. In a statement, the company said it will invest heavily into its online sales channels in order to further streamline this process.

While the company has been selling cars online since 2016, as part of its Care by Volvo subscription, it plans to expand its digital services to include sales, insurance, maintenance, and roadside assistance as well.

“The most important thing for us is to do what our customers are asking for,” Gustafsson said, adding that the company was simply “taking away the unhealthy part of our business.”