AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/03 Report--

On June 2nd, Volvo released its latest sales figures: Volvo sold 45952 vehicles worldwide in May, down 28.3% from 64111 in the same period last year. In May, Volvo sold 18752 vehicles in Europe, down 24.3 per cent from a year earlier, 9372 in North America, down 29.1 per cent from a year earlier and 9488 in China, down 43.8 per cent from a year earlier. In response to the decline in sales, Volvo said: mainly affected by supply chain tensions and the epidemic. At the same time, it also said that the market demand for its cars is still strong and production is expected to increase gradually.

According to relevant information, Volvo is a Swedish luxury car brand, founded in 1927. In 1999, Volvo Group sold its Volvo car business to Ford Motor of the United States. In 2010, Geely Holdings bought Volvo's car business from Ford for $1.8 billion and acquired ownership of the Volvo brand. In the decade since Geely bought Volvo, Geely has invested more than $11 billion in Volvo. Although the auto market is becoming more and more competitive, Volvo's sales figures continue to rise with the help of Geely. According to relevant data, Volvo sold 705500 vehicles worldwide in 2019, an increase of 9.8% over the same period last year. Volvo sold 661700 cars worldwide in 2020 and accumulated 530600 vehicles in the first three quarters of 2021, up 17.6 per cent from a year earlier, including 132600 in China, up 17.1 per cent from a year earlier.

From the relevant data, we can see that Volvo's sales in China have fallen sharply since 2022. Volvo sold 8579 vehicles in China in April, down 47.8% from a year earlier. From January to April, Volvo sold 44277 cars in China, down 28.2% from a year earlier. In response to the decline in April sales, Volvo said: "in April, the COVID-19 epidemic blockade in eastern China affected retail distribution in China and added more challenges to the already weak global supply chain, resulting in additional production losses."

Volvo said in a statement in March that the semiconductor shortage is affecting production and is likely to continue into the second quarter, forcing it to lower its 2022 vehicle delivery forecast. Volvo expects sales growth for the whole of 2022, and delivery for the whole of 2022 is now expected to increase slightly compared with 2021. " However, under the dual influence of the chip shortage epidemic, it is still difficult to achieve slight growth.

In the case of Volvo's S90, for example, Volvo's S90 sales have been falling month by month since 2022. Volvo S90 sales in April were only 1416, down nearly 60% from a year earlier. From January to April in 2022, Volvo's cumulative retail sales of the S90 were only 8326, with monthly sales of less than 2100, according to the Federation of passengers. Sales of the Volvo S90 fell for eight consecutive months from September 2021 to April 2022.

In fact, in recent years, Volvo is not the only one affected by chip shortage, epidemic and other factors. From the sales ranking of domestic mainstream luxury brands in April, we can see that there has been a sharp decline from first-tier luxury brands to second-tier luxury brands. In addition, many multinational car companies also have to reduce production, stop production, the global automobile industry is facing unprecedented difficulties. "lack of core" has also brought a huge impact on the entire automobile industry. According to relevant data, China's automobile market has reduced production by a total of 2 million vehicles in 2021 due to "lack of core", accounting for 7% of the total output in 2021.

However, with the arrival of local governments' new policies to promote car consumption and halve the vehicle purchase tax, the auto market is expected to resume growth in the second half of the year. Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National passenger car Market Information Association, said that local policies to encourage automobile consumption are more direct, can better release consumer consumption potential, and can boost sales in the short term. On the other hand, the purchase tax relief policy covers passenger cars with engines of 2.0 liters or less, and this condition also covers almost 90% of the market. it basically covers most independent brand models, most joint venture brand models and a small number of luxury brand models, which is of substantial help to boost the auto market and increase the purchasing power of consumers.

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