AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/06 Report--

On December 5, Volvo released the latest sales figures for November. Volvo continued its October sales growth trend and achieved sales growth again in the grim environment of the car market.

Volvo sold 62600 passenger cars worldwide in November, up 11.6% from a year earlier, according to Volvo sales figures, which totaled 631200 vehicles from January to November, up 8.4% from a year earlier.

In terms of specific market segments, the European market is the main sales market for Volvo cars. Volvo sold 29300 vehicles in November, up 5.3 per cent from January to November. From January to November, Volvo sold 306000 vehicles, up 6.2 per cent from a year earlier.

In the US market, Volvo sold 9635 new cars in November, up 17.8 per cent from a year earlier to 95874 from January to November, up 7.2 per cent from a year earlier.

Although the European market is Volvo's main sales market, China is still Volvo's fastest-growing market. Volvo sold 14500 cars in China in November, up 26.7% from a year earlier. From January to November, Volvo sold 138000 vehicles in China, up 16.3% from a year earlier. It is worth noting that Volvo's cumulative sales in China exceeded those of last year as of November.

Volvo said the year-on-year increase in sales was mainly due to Volvo's SUV products, which were Volvo's three best-selling products in November: the XC60, XC40 and XC90. In addition, Volvo V60, V60CC and S60 also contributed to sales growth.

In terms of specific models, the XC60, XC40 and XC90 were among the top three Volvo models sold in November, with XC60 sales of 18955, XC40 of 14478 and XC90 of 9087.

The Volvo XC60 is one of the more controversial models. According to the inquiry on the car defect website, XC60 has been at the top of the list of complaints due to problems such as body resonance, engine jitter and abnormal noise, engine noise, gearbox jitter and so on. In this case, XC60 is still the main sales force of Volvo cars, and there is no significant reduction in sales as a result of complaints, but XC40-related complaints are gradually decreasing in recent months.

XC60 sales did not decline as a result of consumer complaints, mainly because the XC60 is cost-effective and competitive, even the low-end version of the XC60 also has active braking, ACC and lane deviation auxiliary features. The Audi Q5L and BMW X3 of the same class need to be optional.

Volvo is speeding up the iteration of product updates. The Volvo XC90 officially launched on Sept. 5. The new car has not changed much from the previous generation, only making some adjustments in appearance and details, and some upgrades in configuration. The official guiding price is 63.39-833900 yuan.

At this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, Volvo officially unveiled the new generation S60 and opened its pre-sale, with the pre-price of the fuel version at 28.70-380000 yuan and the E-drive hybrid model at 39.99-465000 yuan. It is understood that the car will be officially launched on December 12.

Net sales of Volvo cars reached 98.7 billion Swedish kronor in the third quarter, up 6.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to financial reports. After adjusting for exchange rate movements, net sales increased by 2%. The adjusted and reported operating profit was 108.9 Swedish kronor (about 8 billion yuan), an increase of 6.2% over the same period last year, and the operating profit margin reached 11%.

Samuelson, president and CEO of Volvo Group, said that although the company's sales increased in the third quarter of 2019 and its profitability was still considerable, it was down slightly from 11.1% in the same period last year.

Earlier this year, Volvo began assessing staff and other production costs, and in July, Volvo formally announced plans to cut costs by 2 billion kroner, with new cost-cutting measures starting in the second half of this year and continuing through the first half of 2020.

Volvo said market conditions in 2019 were expected to continue to put pressure on margins, but the combination of sales growth and cost-cutting measures was expected to lead to profit growth in the second half of the year compared with the same period last year.

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