Road safety holds utter importance today. With road-related accidents at high with the astute growth of vehicles on our roads in the last 2 decades. More traffic invites higher risk and with carelessness, they lead to horrific circumstances.
Thus, it becomes necessary to introduce an abstraction that brings in safety at reasonable terms. Volvo has made a similar attempt to suggest a claim to help the situation.
The limit
Volvo has limited all their vehicles' top speed at 180 km/hr or 112mph. The limits will be implemented from 2021. And polestar, Volvos’s sub-brand that provides electric offerings will not abide by these restrictions. The administration announced that their target is that no one should die in a road accident by a Volvo vehicle.
The luxury car makers, before this, limited speeds of the apex of their product line at 155mph under the “gentlemen’s agreement” signed between Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi.
But Volvo has really raised ( rather lowered ) the bar here.
Some people also connect this with the demands of limiting speeds to 130 km/hr in Germany. Vehicle safety advocates have warmly welcomed this decision. The links are also tied to the affinity with SUVs majorly in the US. and it has been found that SUVs are involved in the majority of road mishaps that claim lives.
Author’s take
This is brave especially from a luxury manufacturer because there is a market for performance and it’s not very undermined. Going beyond this revenue boundary to bring about a better change is bold and appreciable.
Also, I feel that Volvo has been reasonable in the intent with quite some range still for the usual buyer. And these decisions are not impromptu these are usually backed by proper researches especially coming from a massive scale luxury brand like Volvo.
The intent is really right and easing the restriction with polestar, defines the vehicle roles much more appropriately. I find this decision responsible and rational.