Volvo Cars said on Monday that global vehicle sales fell 14% year-on-year in July to 49,273 units, extending a five-month decline amid softening demand for electric and plug-in hybrid models.
The latest drop follows a 12% year-on-year decline in June, when the carmaker sold 62,858 vehicles.
May and April saw similar contractions, with sales falling 12% and 11% respectively to 59,822 and 58,881 units. In March, global sales totaled 70,737 vehicles, down 10% compared to the same period last year.
The July decline was led by continued weakness in electrified vehicles.
Sales of fully electric cars dropped 26% to 10,511 units, while plug-in hybrid deliveries fell 21% to 11,461. Together, these models accounted for 45% of total sales last month, down from 51% a year earlier.
Sales of mild hybrid and internal combustion engine vehicles registered a smaller 8% drop to 27,301 units.
Over the first seven months of the year, fully electric vehicle sales declined 23% to 80,722 units.
“The demand remains under pressure from the macroeconomic environment, tariff-related uncertainties and tougher competition,” CEO Håkan Samuelsson said in mid-July following the release of second-quarter results.
In July, fully electric cars represented 21% of Volvo’s total sales, while plug-in hybrids accounted for 23%.
The XC60 remained the company’s best-selling model during the month, with 16,813 units sold—up from 15,577 a year earlier. It was followed by the XC40/EX40 with 12,087 units (down from 13,818), and the XC90 with 7,266 units (down from 8,146).
The sales slowdown comes shortly after Volvo posted an operating loss of SEK 10.0 billion ($1.04 billion) for the second quarter—its first quarterly loss since going public in 2021—due to restructuring charges and non-cash impairments.
That compares to an operating profit of SEK 1.9 billion ($195 million) in the first quarter.
Second-quarter deliveries rose 5.4% sequentially to 181,561 units but were still down 11.6% from a year earlier.
