Volvo is aiming to release its first fully electric car to markets by 2019 and launch its first fully autonomous car by 2021, according to the boss of the manufacturer.
The president and CEO of Volvo, Hakan Samuelsson, recently publicly revealed the plans from the Swedish manufacturer. He also expressed his belief that fully autonomous driving features would be a highly desirable option for consumers, especially company car drivers.
Samuelsson said: “We think a car with both electric and autonomous drive is not that far away. Our first electric car will come out in 2019 and we plan to have an autonomous car in 2021.
“Autonomous drive will be the most attractive feature in a car that has been released in many, many years. This is because it will suddenly allow you, as a consumer or a driver, to use hours of wasted time in a more productive way. Suddenly, you can use your car as an office. I think that has a huge value.”
Samuelsson also believes though that premium car customers will still want the ability to drive the car themselves. He confirmed that future Volvo cars with full autonomous technology onboard will allow for manual driving since the driver will be able to turn the ‘autopilot’ function off.
While Samuelsson is cryptic in regards to the details of Volvo’s electric powertrain, he did indicate that the powertrain technology would find its way to a large variety of models both big and small.
He said: “We are not just developing one model, so we are developing electrification for the small platforms and the big platforms, and we haven’t revealed so far which the first one will be. It will be one or the other.”
