2018 Volvo XC40

Annual sales of Volvo XC40 set to double in 2019

Popular new compact SUV is on course to help Volvo reach its annual sales goal of 800,000 units

Sales of the Volvo XC40 will grow to 150,000 units this year, double the number sold in 2018, according to Volvo's European boss, Lex Kerssemakers.

The massive growth will come from the XC40's first full year of sales plus, crucially, more production capacity for the compact SUV at Volvo's plant in Ghent, Belgium.

The XC40 is fundamental to Volvo’s aspiration to build its sales to 800,000 units per year. In 2018, it sold 642,253 cars, breaking the 600,000 mark for the first in its history.

“Breaking through 600,000 units has been an ultimate dream for 15 years,” said Kerssemakers. “We want to be at 800,000, but I’m not going to say when.”

The XC60 was Volvo’s biggest-selling car last year, with 189,459 examples sold, while the XC90 was second on 94,182.

However, the V40 hatchback will be discontinued this year and won’t be replaced for two to three years. It's unlikely that Volvo will meet its 800,000 sales target until that replacement, which is set to be a higher-riding, sportier model, arrives.

Volvo in the UK is striving towards 80,000 sales per year, 10% of the brand's global total. Last year, it sold 50,319 units, and UK managing director Jon Wakefield hopes that will comfortably increase into the 60,000s this year.

“If you go back to 2015, we had exposure to 30 or 40% of the market," he said. "We now have exposure to 58% of the UK market. The XC40 gives us so much opportunity. It will be natural growth.

“Global demand meant we didn’t get too many XC40s registered last year – six or seven thousand. Availability is something that we’re fighting for globally. There’s plenty of room for another 10,000 XC40s here.”

Volvo UK will launch an online sales service in the next couple of months. Customers will be able to complete the whole purchasing process online or liaise with their local dealer at any stage of it.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/annual-sales-volvo-xc40-set-double-2019
 
Meanwhile, back in 'Strayyyyyyyyyla - John Cadogan from AutoExpertTV reveals his BCOTY 2019 winner:

I’ll spare you the pain: A Volvo, incomprehensibly enough. For the second year in a row. The XC40 SUV, little brother of the XC60 that was such an epically bad call BCOTY last year.

So my strong advice to you - if you are considering buying any new car - is to forget about all ‘Car of the Year’ awards.

Because they are all emphatically industry-fellating bullsh*t, and they fail the ‘buyer relevance’ test, every time.

 
Volvo could go even smaller than the XC40, hints CEO

The head of Volvo Cars has hinted the Swedish automaker is considering building a vehicle that’s even smaller than the XC40, despite the firm earlier suggesting this was not an option.

The XC40 is soon set to be joined by a 40-series hatchback and sedan (running on the same Compact Modular Architecture platform), but Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson’s latest comments suggest an even smaller model could be on the cards.

Samuelsson told Auto Express that small cars could also be premium.

“I’ve said that we’ll fill our portfolio and right now we’re doing that,” Samuelsson told the British publication at the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit.

“We took one step down with XC40, which is our smallest SUV. We have a very strong line-up of SUVs. So never say never.

https://www.carmag.co.za/news/rumours/volvo-could-go-even-smaller-than-the-xc40-hints-ceo/
 
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