The Swedish/Chinese auto company, known as Volvo, announces that it will only be offering hybrid or electric cars by the year 2019. This was taken as a bold move. Before this announcement, the company had been striving to ensure that it sells a million electric and hybrid cars by 2025. As of today, hybrid cars consist of 2% of the vehicles in the U.S., while the fully electric cars are yet to truly register.
The car makers have made many promises in the past two years. One thing that is clear about the promises is that the automotive industry will either undergo a complete transformation by 2020, or the car companies have seriously miscalculated their plans.
Following Volvo’s big announcement, other major car makers have come up with new strategies. These include;
Volkswagen
VW has come up with a strategy that they have nicknamed ‘Together-Strategy 2015′ which consists of vehicle electrification and smartening. They have made a promise to bring automated driving functions to the car market as a critical competency by 2021.
They have recently introduced the self-driving-car-object which almost resembles Thomas the Tank engine, and they have named it Sedric.
Audi is in the Volkswagen group and has promised level 3 automation, meaning that vehicles can drive themselves and pledges to bring completely autonomous cars to the market by 2020. They have also promised the introduction of sporty electric vehicles called the I.D before or by 2020.
Hyundai-Kia
Hyundai introduced an electric and autonomous concept vehicle know as Ioniq at CES in 2017, but they have been cautious about the plan. Hyundai-Kia group is a part of Hyundai-Mobis which has laid a plan for the next decade. The company plans on providing some components for autonomous vehicle systems by 2020 with vast production by 2022. Their aim is to make self-driving easy without the laser systems that only increase price and complexity.
Ford
Back in August last year, Ford promised to introduce a fully self-driving vehicle – sans steering wheel – by 2021. Their plan is to have these vehicles available in some ride-sharing fleet. They are investing in starting up companies with technologies like sensors and maps with self-driving vehicles.
These are just a few of the many promises made by different car companies which could be world changing and meant to make driving easier and more comfortable in the coming years.