Volvo Cars’ global sales grew by 5.6 per cent to 698,693 cars in 2021.
Volvo said the results also demonstrated the continued popularity of Volvo Cars’ Recharge line-up of cars with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain. Sales of Recharge models grew by 63.9 per cent in 2021 compared with 2020. Recharge cars made up 27 per cent of the company’s total sales volume in 2021.
The number of Volvo cars sold online increased by 316 per cent in 2021 compared with 2020. This growth was driven by increasing customer demand in combination with a broadened offer in more markets, it said.
Although the full year total grew, Volvo recorded a big drip in December; there were 64,436 retail deliveries in December, a decline of 18.1 per cent compared to the same month in 2020. Volvo said the result was significantly influenced by continued component supply shortages, which affected production and consequently deliveries to customers.
Almost 40 per cent of all new Volvo cars sold in December were Recharge models, with fully electric cars making up 7.4 per cent. In Europe, the share of Recharge cars was almost 60 per cent, while in the US it was close to 30 per cent of overall sales volumes.
In the United States, the company sold 122,173 cars last year, an increase of 10.9 per cent compared with 2020. In December, Volvo Cars sold 10,793 cars in the US.
Sales in China amounted to 171,676 cars, up 3.0 per cent compared with 2020. During December, Volvo Cars sold 14,642 cars in China.
In Europe, full-year sales increased by 1.8 per cent to 293,471 cars.
Globally, the XC60 continues to be the best-selling Volvo model in 2021, as the company sold 215,635 cars (2020: 191,696) during the year. The XC40 follows in second with total sales of 201,037 cars (2020: 185,406), while the XC90 is the third-best-selling model with 108,231 cars (2020: 92,458).