Volvo tries to outdo Tesla by revealing its cars will be 'all electric' by 2019

The internal combustion engine has done a decent job for a century or so now, powering our cars from A to B but for Volvo it's the end of the road for this type of technology.

It's announced that it will be making all of its cars 'electric' by 2019. Now, this is a bold statement but look into it just a little bit and there is a pretty big caveat: the cars that roll off the production line in two years will either be powered solely by electricity, be plug-in hybrid cars or mild-hybrid cars.

In total, five models will be fully electric with the rest of the range opting for the hybrid option that's used in cars such as the Toyota Prius, seemingly the vehicle of choice for Uber drivers the world over.

As part of the move, Volvo will also be pushing its Polestar arm as the electric car brand of choice for performance vehicles, spinning it off into its own company.

This means there will be electric cars in the wild made by Volvo without its badges, just Polestar branding.

Electric avenue

All of this comes as Tesla is nearing the launch of its own lower cost electric car. The Tesla Model 3 will cost around $35,000 and the first batch will be sent to their owners by the end of this month.

Volvo is hoping that its move to electric will reduce the company's carbon emissions, helping make its factories 'climate-neutral' by 2025. We're guessing it will also be hoping that it can make a name for itself in the electric car market and take the shine off of current poster boy Tesla.