Volvo Cars said its worldwide sales in May were up 31%, primarily due to a massive jump in its electric vehicle sales, but U.S. sales rose just 14% last month.
The Swedish automaker is in the midst of a conversion to an all-electric line-up, and it seems to agree with its buyers around the world. The company sold 60,396 vehicles in May, but its EVs rose 196% for the month.
The increases also came because May 2022 was negatively affected by lower production due supply chain constraints at the time. Through the five months of 2023, Volvo Cars sold 275,312 cars, up 14% compared to the same period during 2022.
Sales of Volvo Cars’ Recharge models of fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars increased by 55% in May, accounting for 40% of all Volvo cars sold globally during the month, the company noted. The share of fully electric cars stood at 18%.
Big gains in China
Unsurprisingly, the company’s biggest gains were in China, which saw sales jump 49% last month. Sales of Volvo Cars’ Recharge models grew 116%, which is about 8% of the total sales in China.
In May, the Volvo XC60 was the top-selling model with sales of 18,052 cars (2022: 15,117 units), followed by the XC40, with total sales at 17,596 cars (2022: 12,097 units) and the XC90 at 9,058 cars (2022: 8,790 units).
However, European sales weren’t far behind with an increase of 40%, the company reported. Recharge sales accounted for 63% of overall sales in the region and the share of fully electric cars ended up at 29%.
The U.S. market saw sales rise 14% in May to 10,723 cars, with Recharge models hitting 28% of overall sales and sales of fully electric cars increased by 66% compared to last year.
