Volvo has recorded record sales in the first half of 2019, with the success of its SUV range helping the firm sell 340,286 cars – including strong growth in the UK market.
The Swedish firm’s global sales between January and June were up 7.3 per cent on 2018, despite the struggles of the global car market. The growth has been driven by Volvo’s SUV range, which accounted for 60.7% of its total sales.
Volvo sold 30,026 sales in the UK in the first six months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 30 per cent. The firm also reported growth of 32 per cent in Germany and 10.2 per cent in China, despite the European and Chinese car markets continuing to decline.
Volvo boss Hakan Samuelsson said the results showed the firm was now “a real premium alternative” as a brand.
Those strong sales helped Volvo achieve record revenues of 130.1 billion SEK (£11 billion), a 5.9 per cent year-on-year increase. The firm’s operating profit was down, due to a series of cost-cutting measures and investment in research.
The XC60 SUV was Volvo’s best-selling model in the first half of 2019, with 50,946 sales. That was 0.1 per cent down year-on-year, largely due to a fall in sales in Sweden. Volvo also sold 32,961 examples of the new XC40 small SUV, up 88.3 per cent on 2018.
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