Volvo XC40 helps Volvo sales rise 14% this year

Volvo sales continue to grow, up by 11.8 per cent in October 2018 and by 14% for the first 10 months of the year, helped by strong XC40 sales.

It’s interesting to see Volvo sales still rising strongly as a former part of the Ford Premier Automotive Group, as sales at another part of that dismantled group – Jaguar Land Rover – flounder.

Both former Ford companies rely heavily on SUVs to drive their sales, an obvious statement about Land Rover but something which also applies to Jaguar now, but Volvo seems to have got the balance right for the market with its downsized engines, strong move towards electrification, a move to sideline diesel and Scandinavian cool usurping Jaguar in particular.

Volvo’s sales in October 2018 were up by 11.8 per cent, and so far in 2018 they are up by 14 per cent, and although that is driven by SUVs – which account for 55 per cent of Volvo sales – even sales of the Volvo S90 are strong, up by 40 per cent this year to 47,811, whereas Jaguar XF sales are down by 18 per cent.

The top-selling Volvo XC60 is pretty much holding its own compared to 2017 and the XC90 is up by 14 per cent, but it’s the sales of the XC40 – 58,111 so far in 2018 – which have delivered Volvo’s jump in sales in 2018.

The arrival of the rest of the new 40 Series range next year – and sales of the new S60 – should see sales at Volvo continue to rise, as will the arrival of more hybrid and electric model options.