Volvo To Become All-Electric Carmaker, To Stop Production Of Diesel Cars By Early 2024

London, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Volvo Cars said on Tuesday that it will end production of any remaining diesel models by early 2024 as it heads towards becoming an all-electric carmaker.

"In a few months from now, the last diesel-powered Volvo car will have been built, making Volvo Cars one of the first legacy car makers to take this step," the Swedish company said in a statement.

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Majority owned by China's Geely, Volvo has committed to going fully electric by 2030. While a majority of the cars Volvo sold in Europe were diesel as recently as 2019, in 2022 they made up just 8.9% of the Swedish carmaker's sales.

In August 33% of Volvo's sales were fully-electric or hybrid models. The company did not break out how many of the remaining 67% combustion-engine models were diesel and how many ran on petrol.

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Sales of diesel models have declined rapidly in Europe since Volkswagen's emission-cheating scandal and carmakers have been gradually reducing the number of diesel models available in their model lineups. 

Diesel vehicles comprised more than 50% of Europe's new car sales in 2015, but accounted for just over 14% of sales in July.

By Nick Carey