December sales results

We'll admit it that we didn't set a new all-time sales record in 2021, record-breaking being a trend for us in recent years. That benchmark of 705,000 cars sold remained just out of reach. We came close, with 698,693 new Volvos sold around the globe last year, securing another year of solid growth. And considering the ongoing headwinds related to Covid-19 and supply shortages, you might even say that’s a strong performance.

traditionally, December is a strong month for us, and given the circumstances that was no different in 2021. We retailed 64,436 cars in the last month of 2021, which was one of the highest monthly sales numbers of 2021. While still a decline compared to December 2020, it shows that demand for our cars remains strong, a fact also illustrated by our bulging order books.

For the full year, we recorded an increase of around 5.6 per cent compared to 2020. The growing popularity of our Recharge cars was an important factor in that result – sales of our electrified cars increased by almost 64 per cent compared to 2020. 2021 was the first full year of sales for the XC40 Recharge, while we also started deliveries of the C40 Recharge in the fall. On top of that, we continued to sell plenty of plug-in hybrid variants.

As a result, more than 27 per cent of our global volumes in 2021 consisted of Recharge cars. In Europe that share was almost 45 per cent; in the US close to 20 per cent; and in China almost 7 per cent. In other words, the sales trend for our electrified cars is encouraging and there’s still plenty of room to grow in coming years.

The number of Volvo cars we sold online increased by 316 per cent in 2021 compared with 2020. That explosive growth was driven by increasing customer demand, in combination with a broadened offer via volvocars.com in more markets.

On a region-by-region basis, the US recorded the strongest growth last year, with an overall sales increase of over 10 per cent. In China, we registered a growth of 3 per cent in 2021, while we sold almost 2 per cent more cars in Europe.

We also did well in many of our European key markets, such as Germany, the UK, Italy and France. Plus, we dominated the competition in Sweden, with the three most popular models in our home market in 2021 all Volvos.