Volvo Cars to radically reduce carbon emissions

Volvo Cars has launched one of the most ambitious plans in the automotive industry, aiming to reduce its lifecycle carbon footprint per car by 40% between 2018 and 2025. This is the first, tangible step towards Volvo Cars' ambition of becoming a climate-neutral company by 2040.

The plan represents concrete actions in line with the global Paris climate agreement of 2015, which seeks to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Volvo Cars' 2040 ambitions go beyond addressing tailpipe emissions through all-out electrification, another area in which the company is at the forefront. It will also tackle carbon emissions in its manufacturing network, its wider operations, its supply chain and through the recycling and reuse of materials.

As a near-term step towards its 2040 ambition, Volvo Cars is implementing a set of ambitious, immediate measures in its efforts to reduce the company's lifecycle CO₂ footprint per car by 40% between 2018 and 2025. At that point in time, the company also aims for its global manufacturing network to be fully climate neutral.

To realise the significant 40% reduction of its CO₂ footprint per car by 2025, the company has devised a number of ambitions for different parts of its operations.

The previously communicated goal of generating 50% of global sales from fully electric cars by 2025 is a prominent one, which would result in a 50% reduction in tailpipe carbon emissions per car between 2018 and 2025.

Other short-term ambitions include a 25% reduction of CO₂ emissions related to its global supply chain by 2025, a 25% share of recycled plastics in new Volvo cars by 2025, and a 25% reduction of carbon emissions generated by the company's overall operations, including manufacturing and logistics.

Volvo Cars was the first conventional car maker to commit to all-out electrification and phasing out cars powered only by an internal combustion engine. As of this year, every new Volvo launched will be electrified, and the company has also launched its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge. Starting with the XC40 Recharge, Volvo Cars will disclose the average lifecycle carbon footprint of each new model.