Volvo CEO Predicts EVs Priced Like Fuel Vehicles by 2025

Electrical vehicles will price roughly the identical as gas-powered vehicles inside three years, in response to Volvo CEO Jim Rowan. “We expect we get [to price parity]…round 2025,” Rowan tells Automotive Information.

The prediction is aggressive. Few trade consultants have been prepared to place their identify to a date, however most which have count on it to come back near the tip of the last decade.

Economies of scale will do among the work — all the pieces will get cheaper as we construct extra of it. However Rowan says improved battery expertise will do the remainder. “Know-how will drive vary up. Much less batteries, however extra vary, at much less price — we’ll get there.”

Rowan, a Scotsman accountable for an iconic Swedish firm, got here to Volvo from vacuum maker Dyson initially of 2022. He oversaw the event of Volvo’s future flagship mannequin, the upcoming 2024 Volvo EX90, which premiered final week.

The EX90 pioneers a bunch of recent applied sciences. These embody LiDAR-based security techniques designed to see obstacles in the dead of night earlier than the driving force can detect them and interior-based radar delicate sufficient to establish a child respiratory beneath a blanket to energy a rear-seat occupant alert. But it surely makes use of the identical lithium-ion battery expertise as different EVs at the moment available on the market.

Different trade consultants have been much less optimistic about value parity. Analyst Sam Abuelsamid advised Automotive Information that Volvo would possibly get there just because it builds luxurious vehicles, the place costs are excessive to start with. “In additional mainstream segments, you don’t have that margin headroom to work with.”