Volvo Cars expects to hit its forecast of approximately flat sales year-on-year in the second half of this year even as a recent increase in cases throughout Europe makes the outlook more uncertain, Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson told Reuters.
Volvo, purchased by China’s Geely Holding in 2010, has repositioned itself during Samuelsson’s tenure as a premium automaker with a range of popular sports utility vehicles (SUVs), taking on far larger competitor such as BMW and Mercedes.
It notched a sixth straight annual sales record in the last year, of over 700,000 cars, and while hit by the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year has seen a sharp recovery in recent months, helped by strength in China and the United States.
“We have a second wave in Europe which is making the outlook a bit more uncertain, but July and August started very well, and for September we are roughly on the same level as last year,” Samuelsson informed Reuters.
“For the rest of the year, I would say our base case is still to be back roughly at where we were last year.”
Samuelsson said the automaker had available production capacity at its plant in U.S. and China, while its European factories in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Ghent, Belgium, were operating at full capacity.
Earlier this year the group revealed strategies for a merger with its sister company Geely Automobile, but talks are on hold as Geely is looking to list its shares on China’s Nasdaq-like STAR board.
Samuelsson said Volvo was working on the matter internally and expected to announce the news on the way forward before the year-end.
“Volvo’s Swedish and Geely’s Chinese, and if we do something together it has to be a strong global internationally governed group, with international management and board,” Samuelsson said.
“The question is how we should solve that… There are different models for securing the synergies that by the end of the day are the major reason for this.”
Volvo, which intends for half the cars it sells to be wholly electric by 2025 and plans to separate its combustion engine business into a standalone unit, will begin production of its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge P8, this month.
After that, it plans to introduce one new wholly electric car anually.
“I think the timing is perfect,” Samuelsson said. “The pandemic has clearly accelerated the transformation to electric, and we are more committed than ever to go in that direction.”
