Volvo just made history. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese-owned automaker will become the first of the major carmakers to abandon the conventional engine and go all-electric or hybrid by 2019.
Volvo’s giant leap forward “marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” per a statement from its president and CEO Hakan Samuelsson. He also said the automaker planned to sell one million electric cars and hybrids by 2025. “When we said it, we meant it. This is how we are going to do it.”
Along with the groundbreaking announcement, Volvo also said it planned to unveil five new electric and hybrid vehicles between 2019 and 2021—two of which would be engineered by Polestar, the company’s high-performance unit.
The future appears to be now for the car industry; Tesla announced earlier in the week that it would begin shipping its lower-cost electric Model 3 sedans by the end of July. Also, an executive shakeup at Ford saw a new CEO installed that had led its autonomous vehicles division.
Watch Samuelsson talk about his company’s big announcement in the video from Volvo below.
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