Volvo will limit all of its new cars to 180km/h
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Volvo will limit all of its new cars to 180km/h
Volvo has announced that all of its new cars, beginning from model year 2021, will be limited to 180km/h.
This move is part of the company's Vision 2020 initiative, where it envisions a future that by 2020 no one should be killed or seriously injured in a Volvo car.
Specifically, the company believes that current safety technology and city infrastructure are not enough to prevent injuries at extreme speeds. As a result, it thinks that lowering the speed limits of its cars can help alleviate the problem.
The company is also looking at geofencing technologies to automatically lower speed limit around establishments such as schools and hospitals.
To be clear, 180km/h is still way above the highest speed limit allowed in most countries. Japanese domestic market cars have also had a 180km/h since 1988. Many high-performance German cars also have an artificial speed limit, albeit at a considerably higher 250km/h.
What's really interesting is that a Volvo spokesperson said that the speed cap will not be possible to remove. And that the speed limit will only be removed for special purposes, such as for police cars.
It's an interesting move from Volvo but there are doubts that it will be effective. Numerous reports have shown that the increasing popularity of trucks and SUVs is one of the key reasons why traffic fatalities have been on the rise, at least in the US. These types of vehicles are often bigger, heavier, and have higher carriages that are more dangerous to other drivers and pedestrians.
