I guess it’ll be harder to fake emission reports if the engines are all electric. I’m sure the hybrid models will grade out just fine, though. >wink<
I guess it’ll be harder to fake emission reports if the engines are all electric. I’m sure the hybrid models will grade out just fine, though. >wink<
What do hybrid drivers and Omar Khadr have in common?
They are both subsidized by my taxes and they both think I’m a dirty infidel.
Will the electric Volvo have enough pick-up to flee the invaders?
Translation: Volvo announces it cannot manufacture a competitive gasoline or diesel powered automobile so it is turning to electric cars in a last ditch effort to save the company.
I can only assume that Volvo did a survey of their customers and discovered that the majority of them drive their cars no further than 20 miles. So … no big deal. All the “safety-mom’s” can still drive the carpool in their Volvo boxes. Just remember ! No radio, No heater, No air conditioner … and remember to plug it in whenever and wherever you stop.
Volvo like the rest of Sweedenstan is virtue signaling out of existence. Buh bye.
It seems that Volvo learned a lesson from what happened to Volkswagen.
ALL of this has its source in government edicts, that is, legislated morality.
The same thing occurred with LBJ’s “The Great Society”, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and Obama’s “Affordable Health Care Act”.
It’s all an attempt to legislate morality, except this time it’s secularists who are legislating THEIR morality.
I wish I could post a screen shot of this,
I’m at google finace USA, on the ” markets” page,
at the top, there are 3 articles about Volvo phasing out gas engines
a bit lower down the page and article says ;
” …Tesla Story Becoming Increasingly Fantastic As Business Model Falls Apart
Seeking Alpha – 5 hours ago
Tesla delivery numbers continue to tell a story of misery – the missing in-transit numbers is a story by itself. Model 3 narrative is even less credible – expect huge losses ahead.”
selling electric car is misery yet Volvo is diving into that failing business.
wow just wow.
Green theocracy gone commercial. Rent seekers paradise. Government to legislate where markets say no.
If Volvo could still build a ’90 240, I would buy another in a heartbeat.
What a shame.
No problem…Mercedes has solved all EV issues.
https://youtu.be/0k1tbf8muMc
The Captcha is “Tarquinia 1300” .. nice name for an EV.
“Be the first on your street to drive a Tarquinia 1300.”
Spot on, Gary … spot on!
This morning, I have an appointment with my NEW Doctor … under my NEW health care plan. Why ? Because the “Affordable” Care Act forced my wife’s employer to CANCEL our Health Care provider (we have had our entire lives) because when the “Cadillac” plan taxes kicked-in … our healthcare plan was no longer “Affordable”. Thanks for NOTHING GOPe ! Thanks for crafting a series of CRAP “repeals” of the ACA … You could have prevented my LOSS of CARE … but you fiddled while my personal ROME burned.
“Volvo, which is owned by Chinese billionaire Li Shufu”
lemme guess. the batteries are all mare in Chirer.
see how it works?
also mr billionaire owner could very well *already* have some sort of Svedenyars taxpayer funded subsidy lined up somewhere. do they *have* lobbyists in Svedenyars? see how THAT works ???
to that list I add the ‘war on drugs’. 200 BILLION with a ‘B’ and all there is to really show for it is a prison cystem packed to the rafters with small time pot ‘offenders’. courtesy among others of the prison guard unionboy lobby looking for zhob security.
I want to live in a country that doesn’t regulate cars out of existence.
Actually, this is just Volvo catering to its “base.” Intriguingly, Volvo has long built cars that perform and handle exceedingly well, yet are the “go-to” car for people who basically hate cars. But, they’re a niche manufacturer, and an upscale one, at that. The typical Volvo owner won’t be fazed by an additional couple of grand being tacked on for the hybridization. Nor will they even notice when their hybrid doesn’t sip fuel in the manner advertised. (Ask a Fusion hybrid owner about his fuel economy.) People who buy $55,000 sedans don’t usually track fuel economy very diligently. Most people, when pressed, don’t actually know what kind of gas mileage their daily driver gets. They know what the window sticker said, or they know that it “only” costs “X” to fill it up every certain number of days.
Now, there’s another factor at work here. The media routinely gets automotive stories wrong. The takeaway most people will get from the news about Volvo is that they are going all electric just a few model years out. No, they’re going all hybrid. That’s a big difference, but most journalists who cover automotive news in the MSM wouldn’t know a camshaft from a hood hinge. They know less about anything related to the automobile industry than I know about nuclear weapons design, so they get a lot dead wrong. Imagine how much else they get dead wrong on many, many subjects.
Then there’s the subject of Tesla’s market valuation. Tesla stock is basically Bre-X. There’s no there, there. Ignore the sales numbers that make Tesla essentially a niche manufacturer, because that’s just a part of of it. FoMoCo owns tens of thousands of machine tools, hundreds of thousands of acres of real estate, has thousands of patents, ad infinitum. Ditto for GM. The hard assets of any GM Division dwarf the hard assets of Tesla Corp. Tesla stock is driven by pure speculation that there will be some tremendous technological breakthrough that eclipses the brand’s reputation for poor quality, etc. However, there is more pure engineering and research going on at FCA or Toyota than there is at Tesla.
There is another hard wall that Tesla is coming up against. Right now, if you are driving a Tesla S that’s a few years old, you’re probably looking to replace it. People who drive high-end sedans generally trade out at a much earlier date than, say, typical mini-van owners, or people who drive Honda Accords. If you’re driving a 2013 MB C63, you roll up to the Mercedes store and trade it in on a new one. It works the same even if you’ve leased it. The people who sold you the one you’re driving have first crack at selling you a new one. But, if you’re in a Tesla, the Tesla store will not take your used piece on trade. Tesla quietly dropped the guaranteed buy-back price a little while back. Plus, if you’ve actually put some decent miles on your Tesla, you have diminished range. This is a little combo that is conspiring to kill the used value of Tesla cars.
Right now, my grapevine indicates that Tesla’s are wild cards that used car managers at dealerships of any stripe are still shying away from, unless they can “steal” them. For one thing, there are very, very few people walking into, or phoning, stores asking if they might have a nice used Tesla S on the lot. Auction results in regions that are also solid Tesla markets are showing used Tesla’s taking a bigger hit against new value than other cars that were similarly priced at new.
Then there’s the whole dealership aspect. Dealers act as float tanks in the supply chain. They take up the slack between efficient manufacturing and purchasing trends. They allow manufacturers to keep building when sales are slow, and carry inventory that gets sold during times when manufacturing is disrupted, for whatever reason. You cannot be an efficient manufacturer if your manufacturing is strictly driven by orders. Tesla has stenciled itself into a start-stop manufacturing cycle. They cannot build 2017 models right up until a certain date, and then change VIN’s to reflect the new model year without dealers to take up the slack. That little “no dealer” kink is far, far more complex than most people grasp, and it will cost Tesla increasing millions every year.
Lest this story be taken as a harbinger of the end of the IC engine, note that this only refers to passenger cars. Volvo total production of vehicles and equipment includes construction equipment and highway tractors; their web site claims they produce trucks in 140 countries.
Common sense will dictate that these units will be powered by IC engines for many decades to come. It is a bit premature to crow about the death of the IC engine, although green enthusiasts here will do exactly that; CBC ready with a doc yet?
It has been apparent to me for a decade now, there is an over regulation problem with diesels in particular and engines in general. This stems from the fact that there is a fundamental conflict between the regulators and the manufacturers.
Every manufacturer knows that they cannot build an engine, that will pass the tests, at a price point customers are willing to pay. This is why Cummins, Cat, Perkins, Volvo, Ford, Mercedes, VW, have all used cheat devices. Pretty clear their accountants have run the numbers, and getting fined is less than the cost of going out of business.
Since the regulators have no customers, they can simply make whatever rules, in whatever volumes, for whatever feelz, they want.
It is simply not possible to build an engine that is acceptable to the EPA, and to remain in business. To comply with the regulations means bankruptcy and receivership; it is clearly that simple.
I have been wondering for a while, how long can it go on? At what point does the only option become market abandonment? Why hasn’t Peterbilt stopped selling trucks in California? Why haven’t they all? Why don’t the trucks stop at the California border, and farmers have to bring their horse carts of produce there to get them loaded and taken to market? Why don’t people have to walk with wheelbarrows to the edges of their cities, to get stuff that used to be delivered by the evil diesel trucks?
What’s cool about electric cars and plug in hybrids is that mostly rich people buy them and the electricity is mostly generated where poor people live so it’s just one more way to suck up and kick down.
I think that electric cars are the right way to go. Well done Volvo for leading the pack.
Very informational read, Bill. You sound very close to the automotive industry ?
Volvo? I’m quite sure that after calls for banning cars following the terrorist attack in Stockholm this April that Volvo has no future and is a bad investment.
If you think about it, its the same logic that gun grabbers use to ban guns. Sweden. Its not the operator, its the appliance.
if you live in Canada you are somewhere that wants to regulate people out of existence.
Kenji- I’m not, actually. However, I’ve been a gearhead since I was a kid, and I’ve read every issue of Car & Driver magazine since about 1971 or 72. C/D is more than meets the casual eye. Since the 1960’s, it’s been dedicated to great writing, and the masthead has included nominally non-automotive writers such as William Jeanes (writer of the tale that became the Christmas classic movie “A Christmas Story.”) and PJ O’Rourke. It has also been home to many, many articles detailing the foibles of regulatory excess (ask me sometime how a federal airbag standard is as much a women’s safety issue as the licensing of firearms was), and the auto industry in general. I also spent 4 years in the car biz.
Without banging my own drum, I can safely say I’m probably better informed about the car industry and issues than 95% of the population.
airbags and fudging test results. ya. this, again from the current Economist:
https://www.economist.com/news/business/21724438-slow-reform-corporate-japan-takatas-bankruptcy-result-familiar-failings
an airbag literally saved my neck when I skidded on very heavy downpour puddle, so much so there was no braking, the little ‘pendulum’ thing on the seat belt did NOT engage and WHAP!! I rear ended an suv at luckily a slow speed.
the bag went FOOMP in time to keep my head from snapping back as I hit the windshield. I even broke the glass with my nose. and my nose with the glass.
I sent a thank you note to the ralph nader folks.
Historybuff- I can’t go into the specifics of your accident. From your description, however, you were the author of your own misfortune. But, let’s back up a little. Sometime in the 1980’s the US federal govt came up with the idea of “passive restraints.” This was an attempt to get recalcitrant consumers on board with wearing seat belts. Motorized seat belts were tried, and universally loathed. Airbags were, at the time, too costly and when offered as options, rejected wholeheartedly by the car buying public.
A full court press to get the costs down brought airbags mainstream in the early 90’s. But, the feds mandated something that the engineers didn’t agree with. The mfg’s wanted the impact standard to be for a 95th percentile female, wearing a seat belt. The feds said it had to be for a 95th percentile male, unbelted. The engineers argued, and this is in the Congressional Record, that this will be a woman killer. One engineer correctly predicted that the federal mandate would lead to the deaths of roughly 2000 female drivers annually, in what would normally be non-injury crashes. The federal reply was “We don’t care. Do it, or else.”
Fast forward now into the mid-90’s. Across America, accident responders are noticing an unusual trend. At all sorts of lower speed collisions, they are finding female drivers severely injured, including paralysis, and even dead, at what would appear to be non-serious accidents. Severe concussions are often coupled with a broken forearm and broken jaw. The incident that sparks a national conversation occurs in Boise, Idaho when a 12 year old girl has her head severed from her body and launched into the parking lot of a shopping center when her mother’s VW is involved in a fender bender and the airbag explodes with enough force to save the life of a 180 lb man driving headlong into a wall, sans seatbelt.
Simply put, a Washington DC lawyer, who hated cars, killed that young girl just as OJ killed Nicole.
Amid a national outcry, the feds successfully blamed the automakers, and rolled back a standard they had dictated in the face of opposition from engineers. The media never once looked at DC’s role in the deaths and maiming of (probably, to this date) 5000 female drivers. Simple math dictates that 500 of those occurred in this country, where we expended billions of dollars registering firearms because that would supposedly save 10 or 12 women’s lives annually. Really? Had the firearms registry been wildly successful, it would not have offset the number of deaths that probably occur every year in this country because tens of thousands of Canadian women drive daily in air-bag equipped cars built between 1991 and 1995, and our federal govt simply photo-copies US DOT and EPA regs almost verbatim.
Whose fault is that? Why do the regulators get a free pass when overzealous regulations kill and maim needlessly?
The media pretty much fails at grasping how many regulations are at cross-odds. The Takata fiasco was inevitable, as was the diesel emissions fiasco. Regulators run amok, and then blame everyone but themselves when it goes to shit, and the media always- ALWAYS- sides with the regulators.