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Volvo has announced that it aims to be a fully electric car company globally by 2030, with all EVs available online only.
By 2025, it aims for 50% of its global sales to consist of fully electric cars, with the rest hybrids.
On what has influenced this change, Kristian Elvefors, managing director, Volvo Car UK, said: “We’re talking about a hassle free journey with one fixed national price. And to do that we need to sell directly ourselves, straight to the consumer. Whether you are at home in the office, or with a retailer to get help and advice, we want them to be using the same process. And when the purchase is complete we can share the data between ourselves and the retailer, which we are not able to do today.”
But where do dealers come in? Mark Cox, director network and business development at Volvo Car UK, said: “Our retail partners become more important or as important as they have ever been. We are going on this transformational journey together. A high proportion of customers still want to visit retailers and experience the retail environment. It’s just that the transaction that will be a direct sale and can involve a host of other retailer investments.”
Elvefors added: “This is the only way forward to help us to cut costs in some areas, and also to change how we should handle the consumer going forward. And of course an EVs require less maintenance than their ICE counterparts, but I think we still have a couple of years until we stop trading in ICE vehicles, both new and used. But we have come a long way this year, and we can see incredible results from our retailers as they have learned how to trade online.”
On the subject of the past year, Elvefors was very positive on dealers’ performance. He said: “Looking from the first lockdown to where we are now, there is a huge difference to retail performance as retailers have learned how to trade while closed. There has been a demand for efficient systems and processes is higher than ever, and I think that we need to develop products together to be able to handle those situations properly.
Cox added: “I think it’s a real testament to the retailers how they have adapted. In January we managed to actually deliver 75% of a normal January’s volume without being able to open the showrooms or carry out test drives. It is quite a testament to how we’ve collectively adapted our systems and processes to support changing consumer behaviour. But of course it will be nice to get the showrooms open again.”