Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars (www.volvogroup.com), has announced new financial and operational ambitions aimed at positioning the company as a leading player in the global automotive business by the middle of the next decade.

On the operational side, it expects to generate half of all sales annually from fully electric cars, one third of all cars sold to be autonomous-driving cars, and half of the cars it offers to customers to be from its ‘subscription service’.

Volvo Cars says it expects that these initiatives “will transform its connection to its customer base, with the aim of building a total of more than 5 million direct consumer relationships by the middle of the next decade, creating new sources of recurring revenue”.

Mr Samuelsson said: “Our customers’ expectations are changing rapidly. This means that Volvo Cars is also changing rapidly. These initiatives will help to transform Volvo from being purely a car company to being a direct provider of consumer services.”

On the financial side, Volvo Cars aims to generate “premium-level profitability in line with other premium car makers, driven by increased sales and revenues across all three global sales regions”, along with a broader range of cars; this will include sales to the new segment of “autonomous ride-hailing companies”.

Volvo Cars says it expects to benefit from lower procurement costs, shared development costs and economies of scale alongside Polestar (its premium-performance electric car brand) and Lynk & Co — the new global car brand in which it owns a 30% stake.

Mr Samuelsson said: “The company has been transformed since 2010 into a global premium car company. Now it is time for this transformation to be turned into a period of sustained profitability in line with other premium brands.”