Volvo To Double Down With Autonomous Cars

Volvo has set an exceptionally ambitious business target for themselves on Thursday; to have a third of their sales consist of driverless cars by 2025. On top of this, they expect half of their car sales to come from pure electric vehicles in the same timeframe. A tall order considering how imprecise the current systems are, including Tesla.

Most of these sales won’t consist of personal purchases. Volvo plans to sell a large portion to robo-taxi operators, more commonly known as fleet sales. Volvo has already partnered up with Uber and provided XC90 SUVs equipped with autonomous technology. Not in use yet, these vehicles were being tested in Pittsburgh and Tempe, Ariz. Yes, that’s the same place where an autonomous Volvo test mule struck and killed a bicyclist in March.

If everything does go according to plan, this will drive their sales growth, though it would reduce the affected model’s residuals. Then there’s the Swedish company’s plan to offer a subscription service, signaling a shift from traditional car ownership dynamics.

"These initiatives will help transform Volvo from being purely a car company to being a direct consumer-services provider," CEO Hakan Samuelsson said to Automotive News.

We’ll just have to wait and see how far Volvo progresses in the next few years.