Volvo Cars Sales Climb In March, Q1; Stock Rises

(RTTNews) - Volvo Cars AB (VLVOF) were gaining around 4 percent in the morning trading in Sweden on Thursday after the luxury auto major reported significant growth in vehicle sales in the month of March as well as in the first quarter.

For March, the company sold 78,970 cars, an increase of 25 percent from last year's 63,132 cars. It was an all-time high for global sales during a single month.

The growth was attributed mainly by Volvo Cars' new fully electric small SUV the EX30, as well as a strong sales performance in Europe and the US.

Volvo Cars' line-up of electrified models grew 24 percent to 33,558 sold cars, which makes up a 42 percent share of all cars sold globally.

Fully electric car sales climbed 43 percent and Plug-in hybrid sales went up 8 percent. Fully electric cars constituted 23 percent of all cars sold during March.

European sales in March grew 33 percent to 39,756 cars. In the US, sales of Volvo cars reached 15,315 cars, an increase of 50 percent. Meanwhile, fully electric car sales fell 66 percent.

Sales in China reached 14,005 cars, an increase of 21 percent, despite a 28 percent drop in electrified cars.

For March 2024, the Volvo XC60 remained the top-selling model with sales reaching 22,402 cars.

Total sales for the first quarter of 2024 amounted to 182,687 cars sold globally, an increase of 12 percent from 162,938 cars a year ago.

Electrified models' sales grew 11 percent in the quarter to 74,995 cars. Fully electric sales went up 27 percent, while Plug-in hybrid sales dropped 1 percent.

European car sales grew 23 percent in the quarter, and the increase was 4 percent in China and 17 percent in the U.S.

Bjorn Annwall, Volvo Cars' chief commercial officer & deputy CEO, said, "These numbers reflect the strength of our strategy and product diversity - offering fully electric cars alongside plug-in hybrids and mild hybrids in the right mix. We are making good progress towards our annual sales target of at least 15 percent growth and in the months ahead we will focus on ramping-up sales of our EX30."

In Stockholm, Volvo Car shares were trading at 40.53 Swedish kronor, up 3.98 percent.