Volvo Cars sold 55,495 vehicles globally in May, down 7% from a year earlier, according to EV calculations, as the Geely-backed automaker’s overall decline continued even while deliveries of EV models grew.
The figure is derived by EV from the company’s rolling sales disclosures, as Volvo no longer reports standalone monthly totals.
Sales of fully electric vehicles rose 6% year-on-year in May to 13,156 units, while combined electrified models — which include plug-in hybrids — climbed 8% to 28,433.
Electrified models represented 51% of Volvo‘s total May sales, with fully electric cars alone making up 24%.
The company itself reported global sales of 178,980 vehicles for the rolling three months from March through May, down 5.5% from the same period a year earlier.
The release, issued on Wednesday, also showed an improvement over the previous February-to-April window, indicating the pace of decline eased into May.
How the May Figure Was Derived
Volvo switched to a rolling three-month reporting framework in February, replacing the individual monthly disclosures it had issued for years.
Under the rolling format, each release covers a moving three-month block rather than a single month, leaving the figure for the most recent month embedded within the total.
The standalone May figures here are reconstructed by EV from the company’s successive rolling totals and its earlier monthly releases.
Subtracting the disclosed March and April volumes from the March-to-May total isolates May, a method that reconciles exactly with Volvo‘s published rolling windows and its electrified-model breakdown for the period.
The derived monthly totals sum precisely to the company’s reported three-month figures of 178,980 for March to May and 162,864 for February to April, as well as the 153,316 it reported for the first quarter.
Volvo has said the rolling framework gives a more accurate and meaningful view of performance over time, smoothing out the volatility that marked its monthly disclosures through the back half of 2025.
Those swings reflected shifting incentive policies, tariff impacts and product-transition timing across regions.
Electrification Holds Up
Electrified models accounted for 48% of all cars sold in the three-month period, underscoring the company’s continued shift away from combustion engines.
Fully electric cars made up 23% of sales for the period, while plug-in hybrid models accounted for 25%.
Deliveries of fully electric cars grew for the eighth consecutive month, Volvo said, driven by demand for the EX30 and EX40 electric SUVs in Europe.
“Despite all the external challenges, we continue to grow in Europe through electrification,” said Erik Severinson, chief commercial officer at Volvo Cars.
He said the company had also seen a sustained increase in retail orders for its fully electric models in the region, which he said reinforced its strategy to lead in premium electrification.
The eighth straight month of fully electric growth extends a streak the company has leaned on as a counterpoint to its broader sales decline.
In the first quarter, fully electric sales had risen 12% to 36,348 units even as total volumes fell, and electrified models reached 47.3% of sales, which the company said was the highest share among legacy premium carmakers.
The latest period’s 48% electrified share marks a further step in that mix, with fully electric and plug-in hybrid models now each accounting for roughly a quarter of sales.
The EX60 Factor
Volvo is counting on its new EX60 electric SUV to support volumes in the second half of the year.
Severinson said the midsize model had drawn overwhelmingly positive reviews from customers and media, and that initial customer orders had surpassed the company’s internal expectations.
“We are now gearing up to gradually ramp up the production of the car in the second half of the year,” he said.
The EX60 slots between the smaller EX40 and the larger EX90 in Volvo‘s electric lineup, targeting the high-volume midsize premium segment.
Early order intake in Sweden and Germany ran ahead of the pace Volvo recorded for the smaller EX30 at its 2023 launch, prompting the company to review its production plans.
The model will be built at the company’s Torslanda plant in Sweden, with customer deliveries due to begin later in 2026.
A Difficult Year
The latest figures extend a run of declining sales for Volvo through 2026.
The company reported global sales of 153,316 vehicles in the first quarter, down 11%, with the Americas region falling 28% and Greater China down 17%.
The subsequent February-to-April window showed a 10% decline to 162,864 vehicles, with the standalone April figure derived at about 52,085 units.
The March-to-May window’s smaller 5.5% decline suggests the rate of contraction eased as the period progressed.
Across the three-month period, Volvo sold 85,696 electrified vehicles, up 3% year-on-year, split between 41,435 fully electric cars, up 10%, and 44,261 plug-in hybrids, down 3%.
Mild-hybrid and combustion models fell 12% to 93,284, the steepest drop of any category and the main drag on the headline number.
Volvo has been cutting costs in response, having announced an 18-billion-krona action plan in 2025 that included about 3,000 white-collar job reductions, followed by a further round of cost trimming.
Chief Executive Håkan Samuelsson, who returned to the role last year, has described 2026 as another difficult year, citing price competition, persistent tariffs, weak consumer sentiment and unclear regulatory signals.
Volvo is more exposed to US tariffs than many European rivals because most of its production sits in Europe and China, leaving its imported models vulnerable to trade barriers.
In the United States, the company has said it will discontinue its cheapest electric model, the EX30, by the year end.
The company has also stepped back from its earlier goal of selling only fully electric cars by 2030, now targeting a mix of fully electric and plug-in hybrid models.
