Volvo Cars today reported sales of 43,666 cars in August, down 4.6 per cent compared to the same month last year. Overall underlying demand for the company’s cars remains robust, especially for its Recharge range of pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

The company’s line of Recharge models represented 21.9 per cent of the sales last month, with fully electric cars accounting for 5.7 per cent of sales.

The positive trend in production continued into August. However, the pace of normalisation was affected by power cuts and Covid-19 outbreaks in China. In addition, lack of availability of components, notably semiconductors, continues to influence manufacturing output, which impacted Volvo Cars’ retail deliveries during the month.

European sales for August reached 10,995, down 15.8 per cent compared to the same month last year. Sales of Recharge cars accounted for 48 per cent of the total sales in the region during the month.

Volvo Cars’ US sales for the month reached 8,136 cars, down 23.9 per cent compared to August last year, with Recharge models making up 16.9 per cent of the total sales.

China sales went up by 31 per cent in August to 17,179 cars compared with the same month last year.

Volvo Cars’ top-selling model for the month was the XC60 with sales of 16,161 cars (2021: 14,972 units), followed by the XC40 at 9,766 cars (2021: 11,716) and the XC90 at 7,678 cars (2021: 8,023 units).