A third of all Volvos sold in 2025 will be autonomous

Volvo has earned a reputation for shock announcements about its future, having promised that all its models will either be pure-electric or have an electrified powerplant by 2019, and predicting that half of all the vehicles it sells in 2025 will be battery-electric.

Now it has made the bold declaration that, come 2025, 33 per cent of all its sales will be autonomous cars and 50 per cent will be driven using its subscription service.

The Swedish car-maker says its latest prediction follows close monitoring of customer trends, needs and desires.

"Our customers' expectations are changing rapidly," said Volvo boss Hakan Samuelsson.

"This means that Volvo Cars is also changing rapidly. These initiatives will help transform Volvo from being purely a car company to being a direct consumer service provider."

Previously, Samuelsson predicted the Scandinavian brand's subscription service, Care By Volvo, would account for 20 per cent of sales volume by 2022, but the latest figure indicates the car-maker is expecting a huge shift in attitudes to car ownership in less than seven years.

Already available in some countries on the recently introduced XC40, for a monthly fee Volvo includes insurance, maintenance, roadside assistance and any local market road taxes.

Volvo has not released any numbers for those have subscribed but has confirmed there has been a "high level of interest" in the service in markets where it is offered.

The bold statement that a third of all Volvos bought in 2025 will be driverless, meanwhile, is considered ambitious given the recent fatal collision involving a XC90 SUV with a pedestrian.

Some of those sales could, indeed, involve supply deals to car-sharing companies like Uber, which has already confirmed it will place an initial order of 24,000 XC90s to be delivered between 2019 and 2021.

It's thought that Uber, Volvo's autonomous driving development partner, will allow the Swedish car-maker to sell cars equipped with autonomous driving aids to private customers, hence inflating the sales volumes further.

Currently, Volvos like the S90 sedan offer Level 2 autonomous driving via Pilot Assist but, thanks to the cooperation with Uber, next-gen models will skip straight to Level 4, allowing completely autonomous 'eyes-off' driving in certain conditions -- although a traditional steering wheel and pedals will still be offered for when the driver is required to takeover.

Later on, full Level 5 – the holy grail of driverless technology – will be offered, but only when it is deemed completely safe, Volvo says.