Volvo Car Australia sets new sales benchmark

Volvo Car Australia has achieved a new annual sales benchmark, with more than 9000 new Volvo vehicles registered in 2021 despite the ongoing challenges of the global pandemic.

The company had already surpassed its previous best yearly result in October, and the total of 9028 vehicles for last year confirms Volvo continues to be one of the country’s fastest-growing luxury brands.

All three of Volvo’s award-winning luxury SUVs increased sales in 2021. Sales of the midsized XC60 (main image) rose by 29 per cent last year, with its tally of 3688 units pipping the XC40 compact SUV by just a single car.

XC40 sales grew by 14 per cent and the XC90 luxury seven-seater SUV climbed more than 40 per cent.

Overall year-on-year growth in Australia was 17.2 per cent, making it one of the strongest-performing markets for the Swedish brand.

Global full-year sales for Volvo Cars increased by 5.6 per cent, to 698,693 cars.

Sales increased by 10.9 per cent in the United States, by three per cent in China, and by 1.8 per cent in Europe.

The results also demonstrated the continuing popularity of Volvo Cars’ Recharge line-up of cars with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain. Sales of Recharge models grew by 63.9 per cent in 2021, compared with 2020. Recharge cars comprised 27 per cent of the company’s total sales volume in 2021.

Almost 40 per cent of all new Volvo cars sold in December were Recharge models, whereof fully electric cars made up 7.4 per cent. In Europe, the share of Recharge cars was almost 60 per cent, while in the US it was close to 30 per cent of overall sales volumes.

Globally, the XC60 continues to be the best-selling model for the company, with 215,635 sales in 2021 (2020: 191,696). The XC40 follows in second with total sales of 201,037 cars (2020: 185,406), while the XC90 is the third-best-selling model with 108,231 cars (2020: 92,458).