AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/03 Report--

On August 2nd, Volvo released global car sales figures. Data show that Volvo sold 57447 vehicles worldwide in July, up 6% from a year earlier. Among them, new energy vehicles (including pure electric models and plug-in models) sold 27879, accounting for 48.53% of the total sales, and pure electric models sold 14130. In the first seven months of this year, Volvo sold 445520 cars worldwide, up 13% from a year earlier.

As far as its models are concerned, Volvo XC60 sold the most cars in July, with 15577 vehicles, followed by XC40/EX40 and EX30, with sales of 13818 and 9201 respectively. In response to the increase in global sales in July, Volvo officials said the increase in global sales was mainly due to an increase in sales of electric models in the European market.

Broken down into major markets, Volvo sold 28390 cars in Europe in July, up 40 per cent from a year earlier, of which 18482 new energy models were sold, up 64 per cent from a year earlier, accounting for 65.10 per cent of total European car sales in July. In addition, sales in the US market were 9597, down 11 per cent from a year earlier, but sales of plug-in hybrid models surged 73 per cent to 3242 and pure electric models fell 59 per cent to 520.

Compared with the European market and the American market, Volvo is very lonely in the Chinese market. Sales in China fell 31 per cent year-on-year to 9775 in July. Among them, sales of new energy vehicles were 1130, down 3% from the same period last year, while sales of pure electric models were 298, up 18% from the same period last year. Stretching to the first July of this year, Volvo's sales in China are also on a downward trend, falling 5 per cent to 87937 vehicles from a year earlier. Of this total, sales of new energy vehicles were 7386, down 15 per cent from a year earlier.

The main reason for Volvo's poor sales in China is the lack of bright spots in new energy models. Up to now, Volvo's domestic models in China include S90, S60, XC60 and XC40, of which S90, S60 and XC60 launch plug-in hybrid models on the basis of fuel vehicles, and XC40 launches pure electric models on the basis of fuel vehicles. In terms of retail data, Volvo's highest-selling model in China in the first half of this year was the XC60, with cumulative sales of 32600 vehicles, followed by the S90 and S60 with 16500 and 9100 respectively, and the XC40 with 4500 vehicles.

However, the sales of pure electric new energy vehicles in the first half of the year are only more than 100, of which XC40 new energy vehicles are 246vehicles, EX30 199vehicles, C40 125vehicles and EM90 107vehicles, which are far from the mainstream new energy vehicles in the car market.

In the middle of last month, Volvo officially announced that it would lower its full-year sales forecast because of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. Volvo said that without significant disruption, sales would grow by 12% to 15%, after Volvo had set an annual sales target of 15% growth, that is, Volvo's full-year sales growth was down from 15% to 12% to 15%. Volvo sold 445520 cars worldwide from January to July, up 13 per cent from a year earlier, according to official figures.

According to the analysis of Volvo's global market sales, whether it is July sales or previous July cumulative sales, Volvo's global sales performance is still positive, but from the perspective of Chinese market sales, it is not satisfactory. What needs to be faced squarely is that China has now become the world's largest market for new energy vehicles. Under this background, Volvo has also made great changes to the Chinese market.

Volvo changed its coach in China in August and December 2023. On August 18th of that year, Martin Persson, the current general manager of Volvo Motor Japan, returned to China as the general manager of the Greater China sales Company; on December 11th, Volvo announced that Yu Kexin, the current Vice President of Volvo Automobile Greater China sales Company, was appointed acting President of the Greater China sales Company.

In addition to personnel, on September 19 of the same year, Volvo announced that it would stop producing diesel cars in early 2024 and plans to become a pure electric car brand by 2030 and a climate neutral company by 2040.

As a Nordic luxury brand, Volvo has indeed made a lot of efforts in realizing the electric transformation, and in the early stage, it directly issued the determination to "stop the R & D and manufacture of internal combustion engines and make a comprehensive transformation of electrification in the future". But as a result, Volvo's results are not obvious, especially in the Chinese market. Auto Industry concern believes that Volvo's poor sales in China are related to the fact that most of the new energy vehicles it currently sells are "oil-to-electricity" products, which is also the key reason why it is difficult to improve its sales.

"how to accelerate the transformation and development and deal with the attack of China's own brands" has become an urgent problem for Volvo in China. Volvo urgently needs to make up lessons on new energy products.

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