Volvo Cars have announced reports of a stable financial result for the first quarter of 2022, with gradual impact from the market disturbances caused by the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 lockdowns in Asia. Meanwhile, during the period, the brand’s plug-in and Recharge electric vehicles (EVs) continued to sell well, despite all of this.
Jim Rowan, Volvo Cars chief executive, said: “In the first few months of 2022, the war in Ukraine has destroyed lives and displaced millions of innocent people. The same war has also sent already rising inflation to new heights and further disrupted supply chains that were already fragile.
“When summarising Volvo Cars’ performance during this first quarter, I am incredibly pleased that we have delivered such stable results.”
Volvo Cars sold a total of 148,295 cars in the first quarter as the supply chain constraints affecting the company continued to ease, albeit slowly. However, late in the quarter, the company was hit by a shortage of a specific component, which will also impact production during the second quarter.
Volvo Cars considers this a temporary setback and expects the supply chains to improve in the second half of the year. The company expects marginal growth in sales volumes for the full year 2022 compared to 2021, although uncertainty is high.
Volvo Cars’ plug-in hybrid and fully electric Recharge models remained popular among customers and the share of electrified cars continued to rise. In the first quarter, Recharge sales made up 34 percent of total sales which shows that the transition to cleaner driving is continuing to happen at a growing rate.
Of the 34 percent of Recharge sales, fully electric cars made up eight percent, impressively doubling in the space of the past two quarters. These included the Recharge XC40 and C40 Recharge fully electric models.
