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According to the official release of Volvo Automobile Group, Volvo sold 615121 vehicles worldwide in 2022, down 12.0% from the same period last year, including 727663 in December 2022, up 12.8% from the same period last year.

Chinese mainland is Volvo's largest single market in the world and its smallest decline in sales in 2022. Volvo sold 162322 Chinese mainland vehicles in 2022, down 5.4 per cent from a year earlier, while the European market fell 15.7 per cent to 247413 and the US market fell 16.5 per cent to 102038, according to the data.

From being acquired by Geely in 2010 to selling 171400 vehicles annually in the Chinese market in 2021, Volvo has indeed achieved a leap, but the current competition in China's automobile market is particularly fierce, especially in the context of the substantial expansion of new energy vehicles. the luxury car market began to be eroded by new power brands such as Azura and ideals, while the weak traditional second-tier luxury brands are already facing multiple crises.

Data show that Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi had a market share of 25.8%, 25.8% and 19.1% in China in the first three quarters of 2022, with the exception of Audi's slight decline in market share, Mercedes-Benz and BMW all rose. Second-tier luxury brands are different. Lexus, Cadillac and Volvo have 6.6%, 5.9% and 5.6% of the Chinese market respectively. These three car companies used to be outstanding second-tier luxury brands, but their market share is declining. In other words, the luxury car market is concentrated to the head car companies, luxury car market segmentation is not easy to do. Deeper, luxury brands may face a new round of reshuffle.

In December 2022, NIO held its annual NIO DAY to launch a new generation of ES8 and a new sedan EC7. At the media communication meeting after NIO Day, Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Xilai Motor, set up a new FLAG: "next year's sales will exceed that of Lexus petrol vehicles." Although Li Bin did not mention specific sales figures, with reference to Lexus's current sales, the sales target for 2023 should exceed 200000 vehicles, which is also the annual sales of many second-tier luxury brands combined.

In November 2022, Volvo announced that its strategic direction is to achieve full electrification by 2030 and shape the future of mobile travel. To this end, Volvo will divest its 33 per cent stake in Aurobay to Geely Holdings, pointing out that the divestment is another important step in Volvo's transformation into an all-electric carmaker, making Volvo the first carmaker to withdraw completely from the development and manufacture of internal combustion engines. In the future, Volvo will focus its investment and capital allocation on the development of high-performance all-electric power systems.

From all sorts of signs, Volvo's move may be for an all-electric strategy, or it may be to obey the overall situation of the deal between Geely and Renault. In 2021, Volvo announced a rather radical plan. Volvo says its pure electric models will account for 50 per cent of total sales by 2025, with the rest in hybrid models. By 2030, Volvo will transform into a pure electric brand, when it will sell only pure electric cars, eliminating all cars with internal combustion engines around the world. By 204, Volvo strives to become a climate zero-load benchmark, and all pure electric models will be sold online only.

The electrification transformation is considered an important part of Volvo's sustainable strategy, which means that cars powered by internal combustion engines will be completely removed from its product catalog, including hybrid vehicles. In the future, Volvo's product lineup will be made up of 100% pure electric models. "to maintain our market leadership, we must invest more in electrified models and new business models," said H å Samuelson, president and chief executive of Volvo Automotive Group. Volvo is committed to becoming the market leader in the luxury brand pure electricity segment. However, if Volvo strictly follows the plan, it will have only 10 years left for Volvo.

In the Chinese market, as one of the first traditional luxury brands to start electrification transformation, it is the first to realize the electrification of the whole series of models. According to the official website, Volvo currently implements four domestic models in China, including S90, S60, XC60 and XC40, of which S90, S60 and XC60 launch plug-in hybrid models on the basis of fuel vehicles, while XC40 launches pure electric models on the basis of fuel vehicles. Of course, Volvo electric cars perform poorly in the Chinese market. In November, for example, the highest sales volume was the S90 RECHARGE, with 322 vehicles, followed by the XC60 RECHARGE with 296, and the third with the S60 RECHARGE with 109, with less than 100 other models.

Like many traditional carmakers, Volvo electric cars are also uncompetitive. For second-tier luxury brands, they used to rely on "small and beautiful", but now it is time to take the initiative to cater to the general trend of new energy and intelligence.

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