LOS ANGELES -- Volvo Cars aims to be climate neutral by 2040 and to get there it will slash its life cycle carbon footprint by 40 percent to 31.8 tons of CO2 per car by 2025 from 53 tons in 2018, the company said Wednesday.
Crucial to achieving the goals is a lineup of full-electric cars led by the XC40 P8 AWD Recharge, which debuts here today. Volvo’s first battery-driven model is also the automaker’s first car to carry the word Recharge in its name. The name will be attached to all Volvos that have either a full-electric or a plug-in hybrid powertrain.
"Instead of making symbolic, long-term pledges we asked: What can we do now? We will start by presenting the full-electric XC40 Recharge. Another full-electric car will follow every year so that by 2025 every model in our lineup will be available as a battery-electric vehicle," Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Automotive News Europe. "That means within the next five years a Volvo car will have a total carbon footprint including everything -- supply chain, logistics, usage -- that is 40 percent lower than a Volvo we build today."
Starting with the XC40 EV, Volvo will disclose the average life cycle carbon footprint for each new model it offers. The data will be available in the second half of 2020 after the compact SUV goes into production.
The intensified focus on sustainability is part of Volvo’s effort to honor the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To stay in line with that target Volvo has committed to doing the following by 2025.