Volvo Admits It Underestimated Demand For Plug-In Hybrids

Volvo has admitted that it underestimated the demand for plug-in hybrid vehicles from its customers.

While speaking at a roundtable discussion with journalists earlier this week, Volvo chief executive Hakan Samuelsson said the car manufacturer forecasts a significant rise in the sales of its plug-in hybrid models.

“By the end of the year we should be up to 20 to 25 percent.

“We are not happy because we could sell more [plug-in hybrids]. We underestimated the demand,” Samuelsson added.

In a bid to keep up with demand, the Swedish car manufacturer is ramping up production of all the components it needs to build its hybrids, Auto News reports.

“We are tripling the capacity from what we had about a year ago to where we will be at the end of this year,” he said.

Existing plug-in hybrid models include variants of the V90, V60, S90, S60, XC90, XC60, and XC40. This year, a range of new mild hybrid petrol and diesel XC90 and XC60s will be introduced, complete with the company’s new ‘B’ badge. Additionally, the models will include Volvo’s brake-by-wire energy recovery system.

Volvo’s sales of plug-in hybrids across Europe soared last year, topping out at 26,800 units compared to the 16,000 hybrids it sold in 2017.

Volvo says that it expects roughly 25 per cent of all the vehicles it builds worldwide to be plug-in hybrids by 2021. In that same year, Volvo will introduce the latest-generation XC90 which will be offered with a number of hybrid powertrains and at least one all-electric powertrain.