Volvo Cars reports record sales in 2017

STOCKHOLM: Swedish carmaker Volvo, owned by the Chinese Geely, reported record sales in 2017, as global sales rose 7.0 per cent compared to 2016 to 571,577 cars, driven by growth in all regions.

According to a press release on Thursday, the company’s sales, in the Asia Pacific region, grew by 20.9 per cent on the back of a record performance in China, Volvo’s largest market, where sales increased 25.8 per cent compared with 2016.

Meanwhile, sales in Europe, Middle East and Africa region grew by 3.3 per cent in 2017 from a year earlier, while the Americas region grew by 0.7 per cent.

The carmaker attributed its strong performance to the success of its 90-series cars and the XC60, presented at the Geneva Auto Show last March, said the press release.

In 2017, the company announced that it would place electrification at the core of its future business. Volvo Cars announced in early July that it would launch only electric or hybrid models starting from 2019, promising a “historic end” to vehicles equipped with a combustion engine.

The Gothenburg-based group is the first major manufacturer to plan to electrify all its models and to set a roadmap for the phasing out of the internal combustion engine, a century and a half after its invention.

Volvo Cars during the past year opened up an entirely new market as it signed a framework agreement with Uber to sell tens of thousands of autonomous driving compatible base cars to the ride-hailing company between 2019 and 2021.

Volvo Cars has seen a dramatic recovery and strong profit since it was bought by Geely from Ford in 2010. Volvo’s annual results will be published on February 8.

Acquired by Chinese automaker Geely in 2010, Volvo Cars employs over 31,000 people worldwide.