Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter
The Swedish automaker Volvo reported on Monday the delivery of 49,904 vehicles in June — down 26.9 per cent year-over-year — and that sales of recharge models (BEV + PHEV) in Europe accounted for 33.8 per during the month.
During the first half of 2022, 32.3 per cent of the vehicles sold were fully electric or plug-in hybrid. In the same period, Volvo sold 291,301 vehicles, down 23.5 per cent compared to the same period last year with battery electric vehicles (BEV) accounting for 7.6 per cent of total sales during this period, which more than tripled compared to the same period of 2021.
Demand for the company’s cars remains robust, especially for its Recharge line-up of electrified cars. For the first six months of 2022, the number of Volvo cars sold online increased by 86 per cent compared to the same period in 2021.
Volvo (July 4th, 2022)
“Sales for June were impacted by the Covid-19-related lockdowns in China which caused a shortage of certain components primarily affecting the production of fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars. Overall, Volvo Cars starts to see a marked improvement in its manufacturing situation, with the number of cars produced in June being the highest in the year. Volvo Cars anticipates, however, that the share of deliveries of fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars will continue to be impacted into the third quarter,” the automaker noted.
Volvo reported that, in June, US sales reached 8,434 cars, down 31.2 per cent compared with June last year, with recharge models making up 25.1 per cent of the total sales. China sales declined by 1.3 per cent in June to 16,468 cars compared to the same month last year.
Last week, the automaker announced that will build its third European plant in Kosice, Slovakia. The construction of the $1.25B factory is planned to start in 2023, with equipment and production lines installed during 2024 and the series production in 2026. The facility is designed to produce up to 250,000 cars per year and allows for further expansion of the plant in the future, the automaker said.
Recently, Volvo unveiled a partnership with Epic Games to offer its customers photorealistic visualisation technology in the next-generation Volvo cars. According to the official note, the companies are teaming up to bring Epic’s Unreal Engine game engine into upcoming Volvo cars, providing “unparalleled high-quality graphics inside the cabin”.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter