Going electric: Carmakers take the carbon pledge

Several automakers joined more than 30 countries in pledging to phase out sales of fossil fuel vehicles by 2040 at the COP26 climate summit in Scotland on Wednesday.

China's BYD Auto, Ford, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo were among 11 companies making the pledge.

Other major manufacturers such as Volkswagen and Toyota were not on the list, but they and rivals have announced their own plans for an electric future, some more ambitious than others:

The world's fourth-biggest carmaker has said it will no longer sell cars that emit pollution by 2035, but has not specified whether that means all its vehicles will be electric. They could, for example, be hydrogen-fuelled.

The No.8 auto giant already announced plans in September to build four new plants to produce electric cars and batteries by 2025 as part of a $30 billion (35 billion euros) electrification programme.

Ford expects as much as half of its global vehicle sales to be electric by 2030. In Europe, all sales will be for electric cars by then.

Volvo — owned by the Chinese group Geely — plans to no longer offer internal combustion models, including hybrids, by 2030.

Polestar, an electric car firm controlled by Volvo and Geely, plans to fund its global expansion by going public in a stock market debut that could value it at about $20 billion.

German group Daimler -- world No.9 -- plans to invest more than 40 billion euros to be able to electrify all of its cars by the end of the decade.

From 2025, all Mercedes "architectures" — the chassis, motor and wheels — are to be 100 percent electric.

Daimler also plans to build eight factories to produce car batteries.

These iconic brands are owned by the Indian group Tata, which plans to devote a large part of its annual $3.3 billion investment budget to electric vehicles.

Jaguar expects to be completely electric by 2025.

The US-European STELLANTIS group, which owns Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep and Peugeot and was the world's sixth-biggest carmaker last year, has ditched development of internal combustion engines and plans to invest 30 billion euros to electrify its models by 2025.

The DS and Lancia divisions will be fully electric from 2024, while Opel will join them four years later.

Fiat says it will be 100-per cent electric when the price of such cars is comparable to those with petrol engines — now expected to happen by 2030.

In the United States, the group's Dodge division plans to roll out an electric "muscle car" in 2024, and its Ram line of pick-ups will launch an electric version of the popular 1500 model that year as well.

The German giant — and world No.2 — wants to be the global leader in electric vehicles.

Its ID3 model, launched in late 2020, is battling Tesla for top spot in the European electric market.

VW expects electric vehicles to represent half of all sales by 2030 and "almost 100 per cent" by 2040 in its main markets.

It has earmarked 73 billion euros in investments and, like Tesla, plans to create a global network of charging stations.

VW's high-end Audi brand expects to be 100-per cent electric in 2033.

Lamborghini forecasts all its sports cars will be hybrid by the end of 2024.

The French group was one of the first to offer an electric vehicle, the Zoe, and it expects EVs to account for more than 65 per cent of its vehicles by 2025.

Plans call for 10 new electric models by that date.

The German luxury brand is aiming for sales of 10 million fully electric vehicles within 10 years, a sharp jump from its previous target of four million vehicles.

The group's Mini line is to be fully electric within 10 years.

The world's biggest automaker was a hybrid pioneer, and stuck to its guns for a long time before deciding to launch 15 fully electric models by 2025.

It expects 10 per cent of European sales to be vehicles powered by electricity or hydrogen by then, along with 70 per cent hybrids, 10 per cent rechargeable hybrids and 10 per cent petrol.

The Korean group Hyundai plans to present 23 electric models by 2025 and expects to sell more than one million of them.

Kia forecasts seven electrics by 2026, and expects them to account for 20 per cent of total sales.

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