This decade will undoubtedly go down in the books as the period in which electric driving was raised from exception to a new standard. Governments are committed to gradually banning new cars with a fuel engine from the showroom. Various manufacturers came along and released more electric cars. In many cases, there is even a specific year for the switch to pure electric supply.
Climate change is one of the biggest issues the world is currently addressing. CO2 emissions are the main driver and part of that can be attributed to cars. While EV emissions depend, of course, on a country’s power mix, EVs are a good way to reduce CO2 emissions from traffic. The European Union is therefore strongly committed to increasing the share of electric cars. At the end of 2020, plans were leaked that show how the EU views the vehicle fleet in 2030, when at least thirty million electric cars will have to be driven on European roads. That sounds like a lot, but it is relatively easy. There are currently roughly 280 million cars on European roads. In 2030 there will undoubtedly be more, so when the target is reached, less than ten percent will probably be fully electrically powered.
That can still be quite a task. After all, the sales rate of BEVs has to increase considerably to reach that 30 million. In 2020, more than half a million new fully electric cars were sold in the EU. Sufficient growth in those sales stands or falls with two things: the charging infrastructure and the supply from the car industry.
For the time being, the EU is only reducing the permitted average CO2 emissions per car manufacturer to encourage brands to release more electrified cars. They are already taking things a step further, including in the United Kingdom, which has become detached from the EU. As of 2030, no new cars with only a fuel engine are allowed for sale there. Hybrids can still be sold until 2035, but only if they can ‘drive a considerable distance without exhaust emissions’. By 2035, the fuel engine should have completely disappeared from the new range. Although the UK market is of course only a part of the European market, it is clear that car manufacturers need to anticipate this. After all, there is a good chance that in the long run the EU will also come up with such a clear boundary, otherwise the ever stricter CO2 emission requirements will mean that a car with a fuel engine will no longer be possible in the long run.
Jaguar
One of the brands that really don’t waste any time is Jaguar. That recently announced that no new Jaguar will have a fuel engine by 2025. Not only an extremely tight deadline in itself, but certainly also for Jaguar. That is not necessarily known as a brand that would soon say goodbye to the fuel engine. Although the I-Pace (photo) on the one hand already showed the electric ambitions of Jaguar, it also offers cars with thick V8s. So this will come to an end in just four years. How the British will tackle it is still a bit exciting. They initially prepared their own MLA base for, among other things, a fully electric XJ, but that car has now been scrapped. The platform is not optimal for the 2025 goal, according to Jaguar, probably because it is not yet a pure EV base. Now the brand is focusing on a basis that is only intended for electric cars. It is still uncertain what that will be. Jaguar says it is looking for a partner within the car industry for this. It will therefore not be a completely self-developed platform; it may work together with another party on a shared basis, but even purchasing an existing modular platform is a possibility. Then there are of course several players to consider, such as Volkswagen with the MEB platform, Hyundai with e-GMP, or Volvo parent company Geely. Jaguar CEO Thierry Bolloré says there are several options on the table.
Volvo
Volvo is also showing itself to be ambitious when it comes to switching to a purely electric offer. That brand puts a red circle around 2030. Then the entire model range should only consist of BEVs. In the run-up to this, Volvo is already considerably increasing the range. The recently unveiled C40 Recharge (pictured) is the brand’s first model to come with a fully electric powertrain only. More will follow in the coming years. Among other things, work is being done on an EV that will be added to the range under the XC40 and C40. That seems to be the next, Volvo’s chief commercial operations Lex Kerssemakers recently hinted in conversation with Techzle. Presumably it uses the new modular EV platform SEA, developed by parent company Geely.
But there is also more to come higher in the range. Volvo is working on four other models that will be fully electrically available by 2025, including the XC90 and possibly also the S60 or S90. To do this, it uses an evolution of the current SPA platform, a basis that also offers space for (plug-in) hybrid powertrains. In time, the all-electric Volvos will largely take over from the equivalents with a fuel engine on board and the last fuel engine will be sold in 2030.
Ford
Volvo’s former parent company, Ford, is also targeting 2030 as the year it will say goodbye to the combustion engine here in Europe. Currently, it is increasingly embracing the partly electric powertrains as an intermediate step. Until mid-2026, Ford will expand the range of plug-in hybrids to such an extent that by that year there will be no more models in the range that do not yet have an electric motor on board. At that time it also has several fully electric cars in the showroom. Of course we know the Mustang Mach-E (photo) by now, but there will be a smaller BEV at the back that should roll off the production line in Cologne in 2023.
It was previously announced that Ford will use Volkswagen’s MEB platform and it could just be the first example of this. It is possible that a car that is next to the Focus or the successor to the Mondeo is in the (compact) middle segment. However, there are also rumors that the Mondeo successor that will appear next year will get a fully electric variant. Ford’s commercial vehicle branch cannot escape electrification either. Currently we already know the Transit Custom and Tourneo Custom as plug-in, but a fully electric Transit is on the way and has already been unveiled in the US. From 2024, all commercial vehicles must have at least a plug-in hybrid powertrain or be available fully electric. Halfway through this decade, the fuel engine has already been put in the corner at Ford and in 2030 it will be completely over.
Volkswagen
The Volkswagen Group is indeed early on with several fully electric models and is still ahead of the aforementioned brands, but in the long term the Volkswagen brand sets a somewhat more cautious goal. By 2030, it aims to have 70 percent of its European range fully electric. Just like the aforementioned brands, Wolfsburg will increase the share of plug-in hybrids in the coming years, so there will be successors to well-known names such as the Golf, Polo and Passat in addition to the electric MEB models. In the coming years, at least one purely electric model will be released every year. The ID.5 and ID.6 are coming this year, followed by the production versions of the ID Buzz and the ID Space Vizzion (photo). About halfway through the decade, a successor to the MEB platform is introduced and Volkswagen wants to profile itself as ‘market leader’ with a higher range, faster charging, constantly innovative software and autonomous technology. VW therefore only waits a little longer before it completely switches to pure electric.
Renault
Just like Volkswagen, Renault does not yet hit the table with fist to name a specific year in which all its models are electric. Yet there is plenty of interesting in the barrel. Until 2025, the brand will present numerous new electric models. Within the group there will be nine fully electric types; reportedly about half of them would get a wybertje on the nose. By then Renault is counting on the fact that 30 percent of its sales will be fully electric cars, 35 percent will be partly electric and the rest, also 35 percent, will still have a purely fuel engine. Count on a fully electric retro-Renault 5 (photo), the Mégane eVision and probably also an electric reincarnation of the Renault 4. Enough to look forward to.
Hyundai / Kia
Enough about the European brands, because the South Korean are also making great strides in the field of electric driving. With the Hyundai Kona Electric and the e-Niro from sister brand Kia, they are very successful in the Netherlands. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 (photo) will be added this year. Those are the first cars we get here on the E-GMP base, a modular platform that enables promising performance on paper. There will be a whole series of models in the coming years. Hyundai even promises twelve EVs worldwide in 2025, at least three of which are purely electric Ioniqs. It also wants to build 700,000 hydrogen cars per year by 2030. No empty promises, therefore, although Hyundai is a bit more careful when it comes to fully switching to a purely electric range.
Hyundai only wants to supply (partially) electric cars by 2040. Kia says that by 2030, 40 percent of cars sold will be BEV, HEV or PHEV. On the way there, it will launch six fully electric cars on the E-GMP basis and five models that are a further development of existing EVs by 2026. Please note: both Hyundai and Kia are about global goals, so for the European market it will most likely turn out tighter. Certainly because by then the authorities here will have placed the fuel engine even more in the dark corner than is now the case.
Toyota
Although we know Toyota as the brand that arrived early with its hybrid powertrains and appears a little late with pure electric cars, there is also a lot coming from that brand this decade. Of course there is already the Mirai with a fuel cell, but there are also cars on the way that run electrically on energy from the mains. Toyota is preparing the e-TNGA platform for this. On that basis, the first model will soon be released: a medium-sized SUV (photo). Ultimately, there will be six EVs in various shapes and sizes before 2030, also expected to include a compact crossover, a compact hatchback, a kind of mini-MPV, a medium-sized sedan / fastback and a large SUV. By 2025, the share of fully electric models in the Toyota range should be 10 percent, but that will undoubtedly grow in the following years.
Nissan
As with alliance partner Renault, the end date of the combustion engine at Nissan is not yet concrete. However, the brand already sets a different clear goal: by 2030 every Nissan will have some form of electrification on board. The fully electric Ariya (pictured) to be released this year will accompany the Leaf. In addition, the new Qashqai will enter the Dutch roads this year. Why we call the Qashqai? Well, it runs fully electric if you order it with the e-Power powertrain. It only gets its power from a fuel engine that functions as a kind of generator.