Volvo's chief executive has announced that the Swedish car manufacturer will not develop any new diesel engines.
Citing the increasing cost of reducing nitrogen oxide emissions as fuelling the decision, Hakan Samuelsson told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
"From today's perspective, we will not develop any more new-generation diesel engines."
Production on current models, which were rolled out in 2013 to meet future emission standards, will continue for the next half-decade, but production will likely cease after 2023.
Volvo's current i-ART diesel technology
The carmaker is instead turning to electric and hybrid cars as they take up the gauntlet thrown down by Elon Musk
Samuelsson continued:
"We have to recognise that Tesla has managed to offer such a car for which people are lining up. In this area, there should also be space for us, with high quality and attractive design."
Vovlo's first solely electric model is due to hit roads in 2019.
Elon Musk sends Uber away
In other 'future of the automotive industry' news, it has been revealed that Tesla's boss turned down the advance of Uber last yea. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick pitched a partnership idea to Musk, who rejected the idea as "too far out" and advised the company to focus solely on its core ride-hailing platform.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
That's according to Wild Ride, a new book written by Fortune's Adam Lashinsky and read by Bloomberg ahead of its publication next week.
Lashinsky writes that following the discussion between the two men last summer, Musk made an almost immediately volte-face about his interest in the ride-hailing side of the industry with the writer suggesting Kalanick had inspired the South African-born billionaire to ultimately compete with Uber.
Musk had declared that there was a "limit to the whole sharing thing" in 2014, but last July's "Master Plan, Part Deux" linked sharing with his ambitions to make self-driving cars the norm.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
He wrote then:
"When true self-driving is approved by regulators, it will mean that you will be able to summon your Tesla from pretty much anywhere. Once it picks you up, you will be able to sleep, read or do anything else en route to your destination.
"You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you're at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost.
"This dramatically lowers the true cost of ownership to the point where almost anyone could own a Tesla."
