Volvo's First Electric Vehicle Will be Built in China

Volvo has plans to build its first electric vehicle in China. 

The Swedish automaker’s first electric vehicle will be based on the company’s Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) for smaller cars and will be exported globally from China. The move makes sense considering Volvo’s owner is Chinese company Geely and China has become the world’s largest sales market for electrified cars. Volvo is committed to selling a total of one-million electrified cars by 2025 and that includes hybrids and fully electric models. The company is also developing a fully electric car on its Scalable Product Architecture (SPA). In the future, Volvo plans to offer plug-in hybrid versions of every model.

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There are very few details on Volvo’s first electric vehicle, but it will reportedly feature a range of around 250 miles and the CMA platform will support 100-kWh battery packs. And since it’s riding on the CMA platform, expect it to be a more compact model like the 40-series vehicles from Volvo. The larger offering will come from the SPA platform sometime after 2019.

“Volvo Cars fully supports the Chinese government’s call for cleaner air as outlined in the latest five-year plan. It is fully in-line with our own core values of environmental care, quality and safety,” said Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars. “We believe that electrification is the answer to sustainable mobility.”