(ANTIMEDIA) — Providing further evidence that the day of the gas-powered car is all but done, one of the old guard members of the auto industry just announced that within two years, all its new vehicle models will be based on emerging technologies. From a Reuters report on Wednesday:

“All Volvo car models launched after 2019 will be electric or hybrids, the Chinese-owned company said on Wednesday, making it the first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine.

“The Sweden-based company will continue to produce pure combustion-engine Volvos from models launched before that date, but its move signals the eventual end of nearly a century of Volvos powered solely that way.”

Volvo has plans to launch five new models from 2019 through 2021. Three of those models will be produced by Volvo itself, while two will be developed by Polestar, a subsidiary of the automaker that’s currently being reshaped to focus solely on electric vehicles (EVs) in an effort to compete with Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Speaking to Reuters about his company’s future investments, Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson said that at this point, dumping tons of cash into the development of fossil fuel-based technologies just doesn’t make sense.

“We of course will not be developing completely new generations of combustion engines,” he said, adding that part of Volvo’s strategy is to join the race to produce the fully-functional self-driving car. “This means that there will in future be no Volvo cars without an electric motor.”

One of the primary obstacles to the reality of roads full of EVs — and, eventually, self-driving cars — has been infrastructure. But as Anti-Media reported last week, this obstacle may not exist for much longer. From a June 30 article:

“Chargepoint, the company that maintains the largest network of EV charging stations on the planet, published press release Thursday announcing it had just secured $43 million in funding from Siemens, a corporation Chargepoint calls a ‘global powerhouse in electrical engineering and electronics.’

“The funding comes in addition to money provided by other investors with a stake in the game and brings the total for this latest round of Chargepoint’s financing to $125 million”

Additionally, it was reported last week that Chargepoint also just purchased all of General Electric’s EV charging stations, bringing the company’s total number of independently-owned spots to 36,000.

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