Volvo Cars has announced that every new Volvo launched from 2019 onwards will feature an electric motor of some kind.

The Swedish carmaker says pure internal combustion engine (ICE) cars will gradually be phased out and replaced by ICE cars that are enhanced with electrified drivetrains, or vehicles which are fully electric.

This means all Volvos on sale in South Africa will, eventually, be hybrids, or fully electric vehicles.

The announcement represents one of the most significant moves by any carmaker to embrace electrification, a century after the invention of the ICE.

“This is about the customer,” says Volvo Cars president and CEO Håkan Samuelsson.

“People increasingly demand electrified cars and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs. You can now pick and choose whichever electrified Volvo you want.”

Volvo Cars will introduce a new portfolio of electrified cars across its model range, embracing fully electric cars, plug-in hybrid cars and mild hybrid cars.

First, it will launch five new fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021, three of which will be Volvo models and two of which will be high-performance electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo Cars’ performance brand.

Following this, these five cars will be supplemented by a range of petrol and diesel plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid derivatives in all model ranges.

This means that there will, in future, be no Volvo car which does not feature an electric motor.

“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car [for Volvo],” says Samuelsson.

“Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of one-million electrified cars by 2025. “When we said it, we meant it. “This is how we are going to do it.”

The July announcement follows the June decision that Volvo Cars will turn Polestar into a new separately branded electrified high-performance car company.

Volvo Cars senior VP for design Thomas Ingenlath will lead Polestar as CEO.

Volvo Cars aims to have climate-neutral manufacturing operations by 2025.

Volvo Cars is owned by Geely, in China.