Swedish automaker, Volvo Cars on Wednesday reported its highest ever sales globally at 185,698 units, up by a whopping 40.8%, when compared to 131,889 units in the same period last year.
In Europe and the US, the company managed to improve sales compared with Q1 CY20, while also managing to cope with the on-going effects of the pandemic, the carmaker said in a press release. It also said that China has by now recovered from the impact of the pandemic, which peaked in Q1 CY20. For the month of March, Volvo Cars sold 75,315 cars globally, up 62.3%, as compared with the same month last year.
Interestingly, Volvo Cars’ Recharge line-up of chargeable models, with a fully electric or plugin hybrid powertrain, remained strong and accounted for 26% of all Volvo cars sold globally in March. In Europe, the share of Recharge cars of overall sales was 39%. For Q1 CY21, Volvo Cars more than tripled its number of subscriptions sold online through its Care by Volvo offers compared with the same period last year. It also saw a quarter on quarter growth of 22%.
Region-Wise Sales
In China, sales increased by a massive 117.7% in the first three months of the year compared with the first quarter the year before. With continued strong demand for the locally produced S90, the company recovered and improved sales that were lost due to COVID-19 restrictions, the release stated. Total first-quarter sales reached 45,242 cars in China, increasing from 20,780 in the same period in 2020.
In the January to March period, US sales for the company reached 27,239 cars. That is an increase of 39.8% compared with the same period last year, which was affected by the pandemic as many states implemented stay at home orders. In the first three months of 2021, the company’s European sales grew to 87,457 cars, up 24%, as compared with the same period last year.
The increase was mainly driven by markets that managed to cope with pandemic related shutdowns, as well as a strong sales increase in Sweden and the UK. In March, the XC40 was the top-selling model for the company, with sales of 23,958 units, followed by the XC60 with total sales of 21,186 units and the XC90 units with 9,893 units.