Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has pledged to stop building cars powered solely by petrol and diesel. The company hopes that every car built after 2020 will either be fully electric or a hybrid that makes use of both an electric motor and a traditional petrol-powered engine.

"Every new Jaguar Land Rover model line will be electrified from 2020," Jaguar Land Rover boss Ralf Speth said in a statement. "We will introduce a portfolio of electrified products across our model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles."

The move comes just months after rival Volvo Cars confirmed that it would electrify its entire range of vehicles by 2019. Between 2019 and 2021, Volvo plans to launch five new electric vehicles, while every other car in the range will feature some form of hybrid engine. Honda has also promised that all of its new models from 2020 on will have an electrified variant.

Vehicle manufacturers are coming under increasing pressure to reduce emissions in order to meet stringent European carbon targets, which call for a maximum of 95g of CO2 emissions per kilometre. According to JLR's 2015 sustainability report, its average CO2 emissions were far higher at 164g per kilometre.

Recently, the Scottish government pledged to phase out petrol and diesel cars entirely by 2032—eight years earlier than the UK and France, which hope to ban sales of new cars with internal combustion engines.

While electric cars have been promised for years, it's only in recent years that developments in battery technology have allowed car manufacturers to create fully electric vehicles with practical distance ranges. The 2017 Tesla Model S, which features a 100kWh battery pack, can travel 335 miles on a single charge.

Meanwhile, Hyundai hopes to release its own long-range electric car (greater than 300 miles) by 2021.

Aside from electric vehicles, JLR is also dabbling with driverless cars. The company plans to launch a fleet of more than 100 autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles on UK roads by 2020, with testing taking place along 41 miles of roads near Coventry and Solihull.