Volvo UK posts best EVER Q1 sales (up 39%) driven by the XC40

Volvo has posted its best ever first quarter sales in the UK, up an impressive 39 per cent in a new car market which actually fell.

We’ve said it before when reporting Volvo’s impressive growth since Geely took control, but it’s hard not to reflect on the how different Volvo’s path now is from that other former Ford Premium brand – Jaguar Land Rover.

Where Jaguar Land Rover is facing falling sales, especially in China (where Volvo is, naturally, very strong), issues with reliability and model line-ups which have too many overlaps, and very little electrification, Volvo has all those bases covered.

But even with the strong line-up they now have as almost all their range has been renewed in the last four years, posting sales in the UK up by 39 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 is impressive, especially when the UK market actually fell in the same period.

The very appealing Volvo XC40 is the biggest driver of sales – as it deserves to be – supported by still strong sales of the soon to be replaced V40 in second place and Europe’s best-selling premium SUV – the Volvo XC60 – in third place.

Jon Wakefield, Volvo UK MD, said:

This is a fantastic start to the year for us, further demonstrating how our global strategy is producing vehicles that have wide-ranging appeal to customers.

The challenge now is to sustain our performance, something that further new models and derivatives will help us achieve in the months ahead

It all adds up to a 2.3 per cent market share in the UK for Volvo, an increase of 35 per cent on 2018, and every likelihood that will continue to increase.