Volvo has acknowledged that electric vehicle adoption hasn’t matched the ambitious timeline the company set nine years ago when it first committed to leading the industry’s zero-emission transition.
Hakan Samuelsson, Volvo’s chief executive, spoke candidly as the first production EX60 rolled off the assembly line at the company’s Torslanda plant in Gothenburg. He admitted Volvo comfortably missed the landmark pledge he made in 2017 – building one million electrified vehicles by 2025.
That original commitment positioned Volvo as the first traditional automaker to abandon pure combustion engines entirely.
The Swedish company has kept its word on new model development. Volvo hasn’t launched a single petrol- or diesel-only vehicle since 2017. But the sales figures reveal a different reality.
Volvo sold 710,000 cars in 2025. Only 323,000 were fully electric or hybrid models.
Even including Polestar – the performance EV brand spun out from Volvo in 2019 – the combined electrified total reaches just 383,000 units. More than half the vehicles wearing Volvo’s iron mark last year still used combustion engines.
“Our strategy has been to be a first transformer to electrification. We have always seen it as an opportunity and not a threat. We wanted to be active rather than reactive. We wanted to go electric rather than be forced to do it.”
Samuelsson, now 75 and back leading the company after time away, struck a more measured tone than the executive who once electrified the automotive industry with his bold promises.
“We were ambitious and optimistic. We still are,” he said at Tuesday’s launch event. “Things change and there have been variations to the plan, but we have never deviated from what we set out in 2017.”
Policy Shifts and Market Reality
The CEO pointed to external factors that slowed progress. Policymakers repeatedly shifted deadlines for banning new petrol and diesel sales. Public charging infrastructure rollout lacked concrete targets across key markets.
“Maybe we overestimated the requirements of regions like the American Midwest or Eastern Europe,” Samuelsson added. “Maybe we should have understood that some regions would need a bit more time.”
This caution now shapes Volvo’s future planning.
Samuelsson admitted “a reluctance” to reconfirm the company’s previous commitment to become fully electric by 2030. The Geely-controlled manufacturer is taking a more pragmatic approach.
“Let us see where the transition takes us,” he said. “We will not mandate our customers and we will continue to offer bridge solutions for those who cannot charge so easily, and that is why we have plug-in hybrids. It will be a flexible transformation.”
EX60 Sets New Range Benchmark
Despite tempered broader ambitions, the EX60 represents Volvo’s statement of intent. This battery-electric counterpart to the XC60 – Volvo’s best-selling model – claims to deliver more than 500 miles on a single charge.
That figure would make it best-in-class at a time when range anxiety remains one of the biggest barriers to mainstream EV adoption.
For Sweden, the significance extends beyond one vehicle launch. Volvo roughly matches Britain’s Jaguar Land Rover in size but carries disproportionate economic weight in the smaller Nordic nation.
The Torslanda facility and Gothenburg headquarters are being positioned as a pan-European hub. The sites will handle design, development and production of Volvo’s next-generation EVs.
“Today is an important milestone for our company and for Sweden as a whole,” Samuelsson said.
Volvo may no longer be on track to hit its 2017 targets. But as the first EX60 moves silently down the Torslanda production line, Samuelsson’s betting the direction remains correct – even if the journey’s taking longer than originally planned.
