Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter
The automaker Volvo reported on Monday the delivery of 49,904 vehicles in June — down 26.9 per cent from 2021 — and that sales of recharge models (BEV + PHEV) in Europe accounted for 33.8 per during the month.
On Tuesday, Volvo Car USA added that Recharge models represented 25.1 percent of total volume in the country “as industry challenges persisted”. The company added that 25.1 percent of the sales in the U.S. were Recharge models (PHEVs and EVs) and in California, the recharge market share reached 75 per cent.
In the U.S. the seven-passenger XC90 midsize luxury SUV was the month’s top seller, followed by the XC60 compact luxury SUV and XC40 small luxury SUV. In Canada, June sales of Recharge models increased 51.4 percent over the same month last year, while Year to Date sales were up 0.6 percent over the same period in 2021, Volvo added.
As a whole, the Volvo Car Americas region saw 10,309 cars sold during the month. Sales of Recharge models accounted for 27.9 percent of sales across the region.
“Demand for our cars remains strong but inventory challenges continue,” said Anders Gustafsson, President, and CEO of Volvo Car USA.
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.
“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.
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 visualization 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