Volvo Cars reported on Thursday that global sales dropped 9% in August to 48,029 vehicles, extending a year of weak demand for its electric lineup.
Sales of electrified models — fully electric and plug-in hybrids — fell 17% year over year to 20,715 units, accounting for 43% of the Geely-backed carmaker’s total deliveries.
Fully electric models led the decline, plunging 28% to 9,604 units as the company prepares to expand its EV lineup over the next months with the ES90 and the new iteration of the EX60 scheduled for next year.
Sales of plug-in hybrids slipped 4% to 11,111 units.
By contrast, mild hybrids and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles proved more resilient, down just 2% to 27,314 units.
The monthly sales results were released immediately after the company announced the production kick-off of its new EV model, the ES90.
The ES90 order book is opened across several European markets and customer deliveries will start later this year, according to the Geely-backed carmaker.
The model is also set to roll out in key Asia-Pacific regions in the near future.
Volvo’s results mark the seventh monthly sales decline so far in 2025, with year-to-date sales down 10% to 451,082 vehicles compared with 498,464 in the same period last year.
Volvo’s EV sales have been under pressure throughout the year. Fully electric deliveries have now fallen in seven of the first eight months of 2025, with August’s 28% drop following a 26% fall in July.
Year-to-date, EV sales are down 24% at 90,326 units, according to company data.
In August, the XC60 remained Volvo’s top-selling model, with sales of 17,366 vehicles, slightly lower than 17,423 a year earlier.
The XC40/EX40 followed with 9,404 sales, down 12% from 10,668, while the flagship XC90 was nearly flat at 7,246 units versus 7,292 a year ago.
Besides the ES90, the brand will unveil next January the refreshed mid-size SUV Volvo EX60 with deliveries starting in the first half of the year.
