Volvo Cars ended 2021 as the fastest growing luxury automotive brand in Australia after notching up the biggest new vehicle sales year in its history, albeit short of its intended target of 10,000 units.
According to the national sales data provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Volvo Cars achieved 9028 sales in 2021, a 17.5% lift on the 2020 number of 7700 units sold.
The 2021 sales total, however, falls short of the 10,000 unit target which the luxury Swedish brand had previously forecast to the market in 2021, a result it says was impacted by global supply chain issues, most likely being the shortage of semi-conductors.
After a positive first half of 2021, Volvo Car saw its monthly total begin sliding backwards from August 2021 when it sold 549 new vehicles (568 in 2020). September saw 615 sales (661 in 2020), October saw 593 sales (703 in 2020), November saw 554 sales (836 in 2020) and December 2021 saw 542 units sold, (870 in 2020).
To kick off 2022 Volvo Car Australia has launched a new generation plug-in hybrid version of its XC60 and XC90 luxury SUVs with bigger batteries, doubling the electric driving range and now capable of 90 kilometres of pure electric driving on a full charge.
Volvo Car Australia managing director Stephen Connor says the brands performance in 2021 augurs well for an even bigger year in 2022 as global supply chains are addressed.
“Volvo in Australia has had four years of consecutive growth and 2022 will be no different. The future of our brand and products sets us apart from other luxury manufacturers,” Connor says
“To have achieved a 17.5% increase in a year hampered by a number of constraints is a fantastic result for Volvo Cars, especially when the luxury segment only increased by 2.4% in 2021.”
“Having secured a minimum of 20% production growth for 2022 things for Volvo Cars will only continue to get better. But I am determined for and confident of further growth and will continue to push for even more production to meet the demand of our brand.”
“We are seeing a surging demand for electric vehicles in Australia, and in 2022 pure electric cars will make up a minimum 30% of our sales. This will only increase as more and more Australians embrace the all-electric drivetrains.”
“We are pushing for more production of our pure electric vehicles as we drive towards our 2030 goal of only selling Pure Electric vehicles.” He says.
To meet the growing demand Volvo announced in December 2021 that it is launching single motor variant of its popular XC40 Recharge Pure Electric compact luxury SUV.
In the second half of 2022 Connor revealed Volvo will launch the C40 Recharge, its second all-electric car to arrive to Australia and built on the successful CMA platform.
“The C40 Recharge has all the benefits of an SUV, but with a lower and sleeker design. It represents the all-electric future of Volvo and our commitment to zero emissions,” Connor says.
