Volvo Cars reports sales of 45,786 cars in August, sees weaker second half 2021

GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Volvo Cars reported global sales of 45,786 cars in August, down 10.6 percent compared with the same period last year. Overall underlying demand in the car industry and for Volvo Cars’ products remained very robust.

Since mid-July, supplier shut-downs due to Covid-19 in South East Asia, especially in Malaysia, has worsened an already strained supply situation. These material shortages have led to temporary production halts at Volvo Cars’ facilities in Sweden, Belgium, China and the US, with reduced production volumes as a result.

Volvo Cars continues to monitor the situation and currently expects that, for the second half of 2021, it will be challenging to achieve the volume levels achieved during the same period 2020. This will have an impact on revenue and profit, but Volvo Cars’ outlook for the full year 2021 still remains.

In the first eight months of the year, the company sold 483,426 cars globally, up 26.1 percent compared with the same period last year.

The sales of Volvo Cars’ Recharge line-up of chargeable models remained strong and accounted for 24.2 percent of all cars sold in the month. In Europe, Volvo Cars reached an all-time high as 47 percent of all cars sold in August were from the Recharge line-up.

The US reported a solid sales performance in August with 10,686 cars sold, a 3 percent increase compared with the same period last year. The increase was led by a strong customer demand, mainly for the XC90 which was the best-selling model, followed by the XC60.

For the month of August, sales in China were impacted by the Covid-19 outbreaks in South East Asia. This led to lowered retail deliveries despite strong underlying demand and order intake. Total volumes for the month reached 13,112 cars, down 17.2 percent compared with August of last year.

European sales for the month were down to 13,052 cars, a 25.4 percent decline compared to the same period last year. The decline in sales was related to the material shortage, which affected the production volumes and, consequently, the sales performance in the region.

A detailed break-up of regional sales is given below:

For the month of August, the XC60 was the top selling model with sales of 14,972 cars (2020: 15,938), followed by the XC40 with total sales of 11,716 cars (2020: 13,828 units), and the Volvo XC90 with 8,023 cars sold (2020: 6,966 units).

-------------------------------------------------------------

Volvo Car Group in 2020

For the 2020 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 8.5 BSEK (14.3 BSEK in 2019). Revenue over the period amounted to 262.8 BSEK (274.1 BSEK). For the full year of 2020, global sales reached 661,713 cars (705,452), a decline of 6.2 percent compared to 2019.

About Volvo Car Group

Volvo Cars was founded in 1927. Today, it is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 661,713 cars in 2020 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding since 2010.

As of December 2020, Volvo Cars employed approximately 40,000 (41,500) full-time employees. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for APAC is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (US), Chengdu and Daqing (China).

Under its new company purpose, Volvo Cars aims to provide customers with the Freedom to Move in a personal, sustainable and safe way. This purpose is reflected into a number of business ambitions: for example, by the middle of this decade it aims for half of its global sales to be fully electric cars and to establish five million direct consumer relationships. Volvo Cars is also committed to an ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint, with the ambition to be a climate-neutral company by 2040.