Swedish car giant Volvo has revealed plans to dramatically reduce its overall carbon emissions over the next six years.
As part of its ambition to become carbon neutral by 2040, Volvo Cars is planning to scale back its lifecycle footprint by 40 per cent between 2018 and 2025. The carmaker is aiming for 50 per cent of its global sales to be fully electrical vehicles by 2025. Other goals that will impact its overall emissions include a 25 per cent reduction of CO2 emissions related to its global supply chain, a 25 per cent share of recycled plastics in new Volvo cars, and a 25 per cent reduction of carbon emissions generated by the company’s overall operations, including manufacturing and logistics.
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Does Volvo move mark end of the beginning for EVs?
“We are transforming our company through concrete actions, not symbolic pledges,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive officer of Volvo Cars.
“So at Volvo Cars we will address what we control, which is both our operations and the tailpipe emissions of our cars. And we will address what we can influence, by calling on our suppliers and the energy sector to join us in aiming for a climate-neutral future.”
In 2017, Volvo announced that it would stop making cars that exclusively used internal combustion engines (ICEs) by 2019, with every new model featuring some form of electrification. This week the company revealed its first all-electric vehicle, the XC40 Recharge. ‘Recharge’ will be the overarching brand name for all chargeable Volvos with either a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain. Volvo claims the new XC40 offers a range of more than 400km on a single charge and an output of 408hp. The battery charges to 80 per cent of its capacity in 40 minutes on a fast-charger system.
“We have said this several times before: for Volvo Cars, the future is electric,” said Samuelsson. “Today we take a major new step in that direction with the launch of our fully electric XC40 and the Recharge car line.”
All very commendable, but have you seen the price of their new electric XC40? £50,000 price tag isn’t going to do much to put the average joe into one of these. Until prices become affordable, I can’t see any kind of mass take-up of this technology; they can’t compete against the I.C. equivalents.
Very commendable, what about Volvo trucks??
Great! But we need to ask another question in our transition to electric – why are cars getting so big? SUVs are a lot less efficient than sleeker, more aerodynamic cars which weigh less and have narrower tyres. The added bonus is that smaller cars use less material (and energy) to make! And having 4-wheel drive is quite un-necessary for most drivers in urban environments. Most SUVs never go off-road! They also (shouldn’t) go faster than 70mph. Perhaps it’s time to stop over-specifying cars, and go back to smaller, nimbler models (remember the GM EV1? That would be awesome with lithium-ion batteries!).
Well done Volvo and I recognise that you cannot solve the overarching problem over night. The big issue for everyone at Volvo and me is how are you going to deal with the TCO of the battery let alone anything else. Perhaps you would be kind enough to read about the engineering marvel in today’s Mail on Sunday 20/10/19. No doubt the inventor will sell you his remarkable ali/air power generator, so you will not have to worry about Lion battery toxic elements. He might be the same inventor who sold a pill back in the day, which you popped into your fuel tank – doubled the mpg at a stroke!
Yes, commendable but also a pipe dream as rare earths have to be mined, motors and drivetrains have to be produced, iron ore is also mined for the metal components and vehicle bodywork; and in simple terms you cannot manufacture something and be carbon neutral, its that simple.
Next is the supply chain, electric window motors and gearboxes are imported, engine management electronics are imported, sand and other materials to make the windows has to be imported along with a host of other components from around the world, so simple question, how do they get from the manufacturers to Volvo?
Then of course, the finished cars are transported around the world to ports and from the ports to the dealers, how?
In the UK at least, in a word, POTHOLES!
Here is the link for the aluminium-air fuel cell https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7592485/Father-eight-invents-electric-car-battery-drivers-1-500-miles-without-charging-it.html £5000 for a single-use battery range 1,500 miles? Hmmm…