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 continue 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 in 2020. This will have an impact on revenue and profit. 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 47.0 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 3.0 percent increase compared with the same period last year. The increase was led by strong customer demand, mainly for the XC90 – which was the best-selling model – followed by the XC60.
In Europe, Volvo Cars reached an all-time high as 47.0 percent of all cars sold in August were from the Recharge line-up.
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 last year.
European sales for the month were 13,052 cars, a 25.4 percent decline compared with 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.