The prestige and luxury car sector generally suffered last year, most European importers showing negative growth however Volvo bucked the trend, enjoying one of its best years on record on the back of their new small XC40 SUV. Showing the strength of prestige SUV’s at present 80 percent of Volvo’s sales came from their three SUV’s – the popular mid-size XC60, updated in 2017 enjoying strong demand – the Swedish brands top seller with sales up over 50 percent in 2018 while the relatively new compact XC40 was really well received and gaining in popularity as supply improves. And the excellent XC90 has enjoyed a modest lift this year. Volvo’ passenger car sales on the other hand have slowed– mostly down, the large S90 struggling to make 100 sales. Volvo is of course these days owned by the Chinese company Geely, however their products are still very much designed and engineered in Sweden and importantly still reflect a Scandanavian flavour.
I’m David Berthon

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