CONTINUED STRONG GROWTH FOR VOLVO CAR CORPORATION IN 2001

CONTINUED STRONG GROWTH FOR VOLVO CAR CORPORATION IN 2001

 

 

 

"The financial year 2001 was very successful," says Hans-Olov Olsson, President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation. "Despite the substantial upward trend in competition, we managed to beat our record performance in 2000. The strong dollar is an important factor behind our high earnings, although even more important, of course, is our fantastic product portfolio. Last year we created quite a stir with our concept cars, our diesel engines developed in-house and the all-wheel drive Volvo S60 AWD."

 

2001 turned out to be a successful year for Volvo Car Corporation after a tentative start. Despite the events of September 11 in the USA and the general economic downturn, Volvo Cars managed to improve its performance.
"For the USA, last year was yet another record year," says Hans-Olov Olsson. "The increase amounted altogether to 2.1 per cent for the year as a whole. The year ended strongly with an upturn of 24.4 per cent in December, compared with the previous year.
" It was encouraging in Europe that sales in the UK rose by close on 10 per cent. It is also gratifying that Volvo in Japan continues to grow.
"Other reasons worth celebrating were some of our smaller markets. Russia, China and Mexico recorded rises of 168, 100 and 54 per cent respectively. The Volvo S60 proved to be very successful in terms of sales, with more than 100,000 cars sold. The concept cars were also a success. The Volvo Safety Concept Car (SCC) was test-driven in Spain by a number of journalists and enjoyed a wide appeal in the media. In addition, the SCC won several awards. The Adventure Concept Car was also highly rated and is one of the forerunners of the Volvo XC90, which was launched in January 2002 at the Detroit motor show."
In June Volvo Cars unveiled a new design centre in Barcelona, an additional element of the company's focus on design.

 

NEW PRODUCTS AND LAUNCHES
Invoiced cars in 2001 totalled 420,477, slightly down on the record year 2000, when the corresponding figure was just over 422,100.
About 418,600 cars (429,600) were made in Volvo Cars' eight plants worldwide.
Sales of the Volvo S60 went well, with 42,498 cars invoiced in the USA and Canada alone. During the year an all-wheel drive version was launched: the Volvo S60 AWD. The Volvo Cross Country, too, lived up to expectations in terms of sales. The Volvo S80 fell back from 66,666 to 45,250 invoiced cars.
One major event was the launch of the new diesel engine, developed and made by Volvo Cars in Skövde - an engine which was been highly praised in test drives. Bi-fuel versions were also introduced during the year in the new models.

 

AWARDS IN 2001
During the year Volvo Cars received several different awards for the Volvo S60 and Volvo V70 models. In addition awards for design, quality, the environment and safety, Volvo Cars' sustainability report for 2001 also won a prize (see the summary on the last two pages).

 

WESTERN EUROPE*
Altogether, 14,834 million new passenger cars were registered in Western Europe, 0.06 per cent up on 2000, when the number registered was 14,747 million. 224,660 Volvo cars were registered in 2001 in Europe, compared with 230,504 the previous year.
*provisional figures, source: ACEA

 

SWEDEN
The total market for passenger cars in Sweden decreased by 15.1 per cent, from 290,529 registered cars in 2000 to 246,581. The number of new Volvo registrations during the year was 48,738 (54,883), a decrease of 11.2 per cent in a sharply declining total market.

 

GERMANY
Altogether, 40,602 (41,563) Volvo cars were registered, making Germany Volvo's second largest market in Europe and its third largest overall. The number of registered Volvo cars decreased by 2.3 per cent. The total market declined by 1.1 per cent.

 

THE UK
The UK is Volvo Cars' fourth biggest market, Volvo's market share being 1.6 per cent of the total market of 2,458,769 new car registrations. The total market increased by 10.7 per cent, making 2001 a record year. New registrations of Volvo cars totalled 40,014 (36,943), an increase of 8.2 per cent. However, Volvo's market share fell somewhat in the increased total market.

 

USA
125,710 Volvo cars were sold in 2001. This means that the sales record was beaten for the second year in a row. In 2000 a total of 123,178 Volvo cars were sold.
New passenger car registrations totalled 8,430 million (8,848 million) in 2001. The number of Volvo registered cars rose by 2.1 per cent. This means that Volvo increased its market share in a declining total market.

 

JAPAN
Overall, the number of Volvo registered cars went up in 2001, from 15,566 in 2000 to 16,437 in 2001. The total number of cars registered in the Japanese market amounted to 3,016,485 (2,978,607). The Volvo cars come in the category of imported cars, and out of a total of 268,560 imported cars, Volvo increased its share by 5.6 per cent.

 

PRODUCTION
A total of 418,652 cars (preproduction cars excluded) were made in Volvo Cars' plants in 2001, compared with 429,602 in 2000.
Manufacture took place in Sweden (145,795), Belgium (146,370), Thailand (1,752), Malaysia (1,056), the Netherlands (122,071) and South Africa (1,608). Up to and including December 31, 2001, just over 12 million Volvo cars have been made since 1927.

 

PRODUCTION BY MODEL SERIES:

 

 

 

*A different division of markets was made last year, so only the total figure is reported.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AWARDS Volvo S60

Mexico
"Sporty car of the year"
(4 Ruedas magazine (4 wheels))

 

Sweden
"Excellent Swedish Design"
(The Swedish Society of Crafts &Design)

 

The Netherlands
"Tow Car of the Year - overall and best in class"
(ANBW (Dutch Road Assistance Association))
 
"Best Lease Car of the Year (executive segment)"
(ING Car Lease)

 

Estonia
"Car of the Year - Medium segment"
(Tehnika-Maailm magazine)

 

Lithuania
"Car of the Nation - most desirable new car"
(People's choice through phone/e-mail)

AWARDS Volvo V70

 

The UK
"Volvo V70 - Best Estate Car"
(New Car Honours 2001 Autoexpress magazine)

"Volvo V70 - Estate Car of the Year"
(What Car? magazine)

"Best Estate Car"
(Fleet Excellence)

"Best Estate Car & Car of the Year"
(AOL)

 

AWARDS Safety Concept Car (SCC)

 

The UK
"The Prince Michael Road Safety Award"
(The Vehicle Driver and Passenger Safety Award to VCC for the SCC)

 

OTHER AWARDS

 

Italy
"Volvo Italia SpA - Best Italian dealer network 2001"
(InterAutoNews magazine)

 

The UK
"Safety Concept Car (SCC) Autocar Award"
(Autocar magazine Design Award)

"VCC - Award for best sponsorship (British  Hollis Sports Youth Sailing)"
(Sponsorship Award 2001)

 

Belgium
"Geert Bryuneel - Quality Manager of the Year, Ghent plant"
(Flemish Centre for Quality Care, VCK)

 

Ghent Plant
"PAG Customer Satisfaction Award"
(Premier Automotive Group)

 

Sweden
"Best Sustainability Report 2001"
(Deloitte & Touches yearly evaluation)

 

Volvo Car Corporation is wholly owned by Ford Motor Company (FMC) and is part of the Premier Automotive Group. The President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation, Hans-Olov Olsson, is also Vice President of FMC. Volvo Car Corporation has 27,400 employees, of whom 19,000 work in Sweden.
For media service visit: www.media.volvocars.com.