STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Sweden’s Volvo Cars yesterday drastically cut its sales forecast for the year, saying car markets in China, Europe and the United States (US) are “increasingly under pressure.”
The Chinese-owned automaker reported a net profit of SEK4.4 billion for the third quarter, up from SEK3.2 billion for the same period in 2023.
However, Volvo Cars said it expected to see minimal growth in the fourth quarter.
“As a result of this, we now anticipate full-year sales growth of seven-eight per cent instead of 12-15 per cent,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jim Rowan said in the company’s third quarter earnings report.
The carmaker said its sales rose by three per cent to 172,849 cars in the third quarter.
Revenue for the quarter came in at SEK92.8 billion, just beating the SEK92 billion reported for the same period a year earlier.
Operating income meanwhile rose to SEK5.8 billion, up from SEK4.5 billion for the third quarter of 2023.
“The car market in our main regions of China, Europe and the US is increasingly under pressure which affects demand,” Rowan said.
The CEO added that sales in the first nine months of the year had grown by 10 per cent, which still put the company in a position “to outgrow the premium car market in 2024, which is expected to grow by less than one per cent this year”.
The automaker in September announced that it was scrapping its goal of becoming fully electric by 2030, scaling back its target to between 90 and 100 per cent.
Volvo Cars announced its plans to go fully electric in 2021.
It said its new target would allow for 0-10 per cent of its sales to include a “limited number of mild hybrid models to be sold, if needed”.
In the third quarter, electrified models – meaning fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars – represented 48 per cent of the total cars sold.
