Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter
The Swedish automaker Volvo announced on Thursday that sold a total of 45,962 vehicles in May, a decrease of 28.3 per cent year over year. Although plug-in hybrid models declined 7.8 percent from 2021, the pure electric models rose 52.2% from 2,399 to 3,652.
Sales of Recharge models represented 33.6 per cent of total sales (+10 percent YoY) and the share of pure electric vehicles remained at 7.9 per cent. “Demand for the company’s cars remains strong, especially for its Recharge line-up of electrified cars,” Volvo said.
During May, the Covid-19-related lockdowns in eastern China continued to add more stress to already strained global supply chains, resulting in loss of production. The company has recently seen signs of improvement in supply with gradual easing of restrictions, allowing for a slight improvement in production volumes. The expectation is that production will progressively increase.
Orders for fully electric Volvo cars continue to increase. However, the lockdowns have impacted production of fully electric cars in the second quarter and this will negatively affect the share of fully electric cars being delivered in the third quarter.
European sales for May reached 18,752 cars, down 24.3 per cent compared with the same month last year. Sales of Recharge cars accounted for 47 per cent of the total sales in the region during the month.
Volvo Cars’ US sales for the month reached 9,372 down 29.1 per cent compared with May last year, with Recharge models making up 35.7 per cent of the total sales. China sales declined by 43.8 per cent in May to 9,488 cars compared to the same month last year.
Volvo Cars’ top selling model for the month was the XC60 with sales of 15,177 cars (2021: 19,835 units), followed by the XC40 at 12,097 cars (2021: 20,350) and the XC90 at 8,790 cars (2021: 9,962 units). In April, Volvo had delivered 47,150 vehicles in April, down 24.8 percent year-over-year.
On Wednesday, the automaker 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”.
Earlier this week, Volvo announced that signed up to the SteelZero initiative, which aims to increase demand for fossil-free steel and accelerate a transition to carbon neutrality in the global steel industry. Globally, steel production is responsible for around 7 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
By signing up to SteelZero, the automaker commits itself to stringent CO2-based steel sourcing requirements by 2030. In addition, all the steel it sources should be net-zero steel by 2050 which is in line with the company’s ambition to be climate neutral by 2040.
Last week, Volvo C40 Recharge has been awarded a five-star safety rating in the 2022 Euro NCAP tests. The Swedish automaker that plans to become a pure EV manufacturer by 2030 has now all the models rated five stars in their respective Euro NCAP assessments.
Earlier in the week, the automaker announced that successfully placed its second green bond to raise €500 million from global investors in order to accelerate the transformation towards becoming a fully electric carmaker by 2030.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter