[M]“Volvo is a leader in safety[/M]: we always have been and [M]we always will be[/M],” [M]said[/M] Volvo CEO [M]Håkan Samuelsson.[/M]
Now, the Swedish automaker is taking a big initiative to combat speeding, and announced Monday that it will soon limit the top speed of all its cars to 112 miles per hour.
The company wants to send "a strong signal about the dangers of speeding," according to an official statement, and says this speed-limiting change will go into effect in 2020, on 2021 model year vehicles.
"While a speed limitation is not a cure-all, it's worth doing if we can even save one life," Volvo Car Group president Håkan Samuelsson said in a statement.
It's unclear if this 112-mph speed limit will apply to just Volvos, or if Polestar cars will be affected as well. Volvo also did not specifically state if this change will only affect the US, or if other global markets will have speed-limited cars, too. This could be a deal-breaker for folks in, say, Germany, a country known for its many unrestricted sections of Autobahn. The company also did not specify if customers will be able to spec a speed delimiter upon request. A Volvo spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
This move comes as part of the company's "Vision 2020" safety initiative, which "aims for no one to be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020." The Swedish automaker says it has identified speeding as one of several driver behaviors that it intends to reduce.