The future is electric, but long-range plug-in hybrids will fill the gap at Volvo for customers not ready to make the full leap yet.
Just before the debut of the electric 2027 Volvo EX60 the Swedish automaker’s executives acknowledged the fact that some customers are not ready to buy an electric car, yet. For those customers Volvo’s working on providing the comfort of a gas-powered engine for backup and deems it as bridging technology.
On Wednesday, in Stockholm, Sweden, Michael Fleiss, Volvo’s Chief Strategy and Product Officer, told The Drive the automaker is preparing to update its complete product line when it comes to plug-in hybrids. Fleiss said the team describes these next-gen plug-ins as “an electric vehicle with a backup engine,” and the electric-only driving range will be roughly 100 miles per charge before the gas engine needs to fire.
“You have more or less the same performance sphere, like an electric vehicle, what customers really like. I mean, the fast acceleration. Decent, really good electric range, and then for customers who do not really have the opportunities to charge their cars either at home or on the way, we have this combustion engine as a backup,” Fleiss said.
All in, both between electricity and gas Fleiss said the next-generation plug-in hybrids will have a combined total driving range of 800 to 1,000 km (about 500 to 620 miles) while also having “good electric range,” the executive noted.
Fleiss reiterated what Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Cars, told The Drive earlier in the day, that these next-generation plug-in hybrids will have about 100 miles of electric-only range. When asked if an electric-only driving range of 70 to 80 miles would be enough Samuelsson said, “at least.”
The upcoming plug-in hybrids will not be extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) in the way we think of them today in terms of the upcoming Ram Rev (which was previously known as the Ram Ramcharger). The gas-powered engine under the hood of the Ram acts only as a generator to feed energy to the battery when the juice runs out. There’s no mechanical connection (or even the ability to clutch-in) to drive the wheels directly with the gas engine.
Volvo calls its upcoming plug-in hybrids “extended-range plug-in hybrids” because of their (approximately) 100-mile electric driving range. These plug-in hybrids are engineered to enable the engine to clutch in and out to power the wheels when the large battery pack’s juice runs dry. Typically, this will happen on the highway, where Fleiss said it’s simply more efficient to power the wheels directly than it is to feed energy to the battery pack to then power the drive wheels. The opposite is true in stop-and-go traffic situations.
Fleiss didn’t put an end date on when plug-in hybrids would exit the automaker’s lineup. “If the customer is not willing already [to buy electric], we are happy to continue with the plug and hybrids,” Fleiss said.
“This is our way of either satisfying our customers who are not yet ready to go to better electric vehicles, and I strongly believe when a customer drives such a car., the next car will be an electric vehicle, because they will probably charge or fill that car, three, four times a year, with fuel. The rest is electric. So it’s easier, and that’s why we call it bridging technology.” Fleiss said.
Got a tip about future product? Shoot us a line at tips@thedrive.com
Read the original article
Comments
Hybrids were a good idea, past tense. Every year since the first commercial EVs launched they've become a weaker proposition.
They're no longer a best of both worlds, good overall range, not as bad for the environment.
They're now worst of both worlds, bad electric range, bad for the enviroment.
Anyone considering an EV isn't going to want to compromise on those two things as much as they used to.
By tssva 2026-02-0917:59 I don’t have an EV and will not purchase one anytime soon. I would be interested in purchasing an extended range hybrid. I’ve had this discussion with many of my friends and most are not ready to purchase an EV but like myself are interested in a plug-in hybrid. A 100 range allow for all my local driving to be electric and I could still do my long range driving without adding the additional time for charging. I do drives of 9 - 13 hours at least 8-10 times a year and some years more often. Those drives are already long enough. I don’t want to add the additional time charging takes. Over that long of a drive the time adds up.
I think the real problem is that the car industry is refusing to make affordable vehicles and a big part of that is size. Americans might want huge vehicles but they can't all afford them. Chinese manufacturers, alone, are pursuing the affordable EV market, the same way that Chinese manufacturers, alone, are pursing the affordable drone market.
By carefree-bob 2026-02-1621:08 It's not the size of the car per se, but the vast amount of technology and features crammed into the car that drives up the cost. An old VW bus could fit a lot of people, but was still produced cheaply compared to production costs today. That old bus had no self-driving, no power windows, no lane assist, no anti-lock brakes, no automatic transmission, no infotainement center, no air suspension, no automatic seat adjustments or backup camera, no soundproofing, no heads up display, no A/C, it didn't beep when something was in your blind spots, it had no crumple zones or other safety features. I'm not even sure if it had a catalytic converter. Just think of the huge number of electrical computer modules and the hundreds of miles of wiring, the millions of lines of software code. And those computers need to work in the Arizona heat when you park your car in the sun, even though you might fry a consumer grade laptop if you left it in the same car.
That's why smaller cars aren't that much cheaper. They are still crammed with all these features.
The BLS measures inflation which requires making the much maligned hedonic adjustments, which is basically saying things like "the new widget holds twice as much memory" or "this car also has an airbag". For automobiles, they look at production costs, and when you take production costs into account, cars aren't that much more expensive in real terms today. We just cram so many features into them now.
By ux266478 2026-02-0918:09 What do you mean? America has 2 offerings from Chevy, and now the Slate truck as well. Japan has the Nissan Leaf. Korea and Germany produce a few cheap EVs too. None of these vehicles are large and all of them are focused on being cheap for the mass market. The PRC's offerings rely on favorable currency positioning and extremely apathetic labor conditions (leading to better cost-efficiency). It's not an industrialist's miracle.
By smallerize 2026-02-0917:221 reply These range extenders have all the advantages of an EV until your battery runs low.
By cherry_tree 2026-02-0917:382 reply Not all the advantages though, hybrids need oil changes, transmission fluid changes, water pump, spark plugs, timing belts, etc. all the maintenance burden of an ICE that EVs do not carry.
I’d rather have an ev with a diesel generator in the pickup bed as my “range extender” than a vehicle with constant maintenance needs.
By PaulHoule 2026-02-0917:45 I can dream of hooking up a generator on a trailer…
I also dream of getting a used Nissan Leaf because most of my trips are to and from town 20 minutes away and we already had gas cars that can take longer trips. If my son wasn’t bringing home old cars I might be able to make the space for it but right now I can’t.
> I’d rather have an ev with a diesel generator in the pickup bed as my “range extender” than a vehicle with constant maintenance needs.
You realize you still have all the same maintenance burden with that generator, right?
By ux266478 2026-02-0917:50 I'm not really sure that holds up. Why would I only consider the electric range on a hybrid?
