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Final Up to date on: 18th Might 2025, 12:35 am
Volvo Vehicles continues to be main the transition from fossil-powered vehicles to electrical vehicles globally. In April, 11,697 totally electrical Volvos had been offered worldwide, accounting for about 20% of Volvo Vehicles gross sales. That’s a powerful share for a legacy automaker in 2025. One other 14,688 gross sales had been plugin hybrids, or about 25% of Volvo Vehicles gross sales. So, let’s first give props the place props are due and congratulate Volvo for being at 45% plugin automobile share already.
That stated, sadly, issues turned within the fallacious path for Volvo Vehicles just lately. Its full-electric automotive gross sales had been down 32% in comparison with April 2024. That’s in comparison with a 5% gross sales drop for delicate hybrids and an total gross sales drop of 11%. (Plugin hybrid gross sales had been up barely, by 2%.)
Throughout the primary 4 months of the 12 months, full electrical automobile (BEV) gross sales had been down 20%, delicate hybrids had been down 8%, and plugin hybrids had been up 11%.
I used to be trying ahead to Volvo Vehicles reaching 50% BEV share within the subsequent 12 months or three, and perhaps 100% by 2030. So, it’s disappointing and a bit bewildering why Volvo BEV gross sales dropped a lot. So, I turned to EV gross sales knowledgeable Jose Pontes for any insights he had on the April gross sales drop 12 months over 12 months.
“The EX30 is down, primarily in Europe, resulting from MiC tariffs,” Jose famous. That’s the “Made in China” tariffs that the European Union just lately caught on BEVs from China. Volvo is a well-liked model in Europe, naturally, however if you happen to jack up the value of one thing, demand goes to drop sharply. Volvo Vehicles, in fact, is now owned by Geely, and far manufacturing happens in China.
In the intervening time, Volvo might keep away from the excessive BEV tariffs a bit by shifting to extra plugin hybrid gross sales in Europe. (That’s productive, proper?) Nevertheless, in time, I count on Volvo to have options for the tariffs and to select up optimistic BEV gross sales momentum once more.
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