Volvo's global sales structure analysis and future domestic car guesses

Volvo's production sites and design centers around the world

Volvo Car Corporation's global production facilities are located in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Ghent, Belgium. Other production bases include Uddevalla in Sweden, Chongqing in China and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. In addition, prior to 2009, Volvo also had an assembly plant in Thailand, but the plant was stripped out in December 2008.

Volvo has three design centers around the world, located in Gothenburg, Sweden, Barcelona, ​​Spain, and Camarillo, California.

Volvo accelerates production of new cars

Volvo’s current models are divided into four major series (see Table 1):

S series: Including S40, S60, S80 (including extended version)

V series: including V50, V70

XC Series: Including XC60, XC70, XC90

C Series: Includes C30, C70

In recent years, the introduction of new Volvo models has accelerated. The current name of the V50 model is actually the replacement of the original V40 in 2004. Since 2007, the first-generation S40, S80 and C70 have ceased production and sales, and all three models have been updated to the second generation. By 2009, the second generation of V70 and XC70 had also been discontinued, and only the third generation was in production. In 2008, Volvo launched the new model XC60, which the company classified as the Crossover model, which was put into operation at the Ghent plant in Belgium. In 2010, the S60 launched its second-generation model, which was put into operation at the Ghent plant in May. (See Table 2)

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the extended version of the Volvo S80 was put into production in Changan Ford's Chongqing plant in 2009.

XC60 becomes a star model of Volvo

In addition to the financial crisis during the past 10 years, Volvo has sold more than 400,000 units worldwide, and reached 458,000 units at the highest level (2007). Sales in 2008 and 2009 have dropped to 374,000 vehicles and 335,000 vehicles respectively. (See Figure 1)

In 2009, only one of Volvo's models had no decline in sales, the XC60 that was put into production in the third quarter of 2008. The car was the highest-selling Volvo model in 2009 (see Figure 2). Volvo sees the car as the first model to reflect its new "design DNA."

China has become Volvo's second largest growth market, XC60 and XC90 will be domestically

In 2009, Volvo’s top five markets were the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, and China (see Table 3). Although the United States and Sweden are the largest markets for Volvo, sales in 2009 fell by 15.9% and 12.5%, respectively, to 61,400 vehicles and 41,800 vehicles. In the Chinese market, sales rose by 77.3% to 22,400.

In terms of sales growth, China has become Volvo’s second largest growth market, and Brazil’s largest growth market is Brazil. (See Table 4)

From the top five sales markets of Volvo's 2009 models, China has become the top five markets for its four models. The four cars are the S40 and S80L that have been made in China, as well as the XC60 and XC90. Its sales are shown in Table 5.

From the perspective of sales volume alone, the XC60 and XC90 are the most likely Volvo domestic models in China. Earlier it was reported that the XC60 is planned to be made in Changan Ford in October this year. After Geely acquired Volvo, it may also plan to start production of the model. In addition, the Audi Q5, one of the XC60's competing models in China, has been made domestically and will be launched in March this year, which may stimulate the XC60's domestic pace.

For Volvo, which is increasing the pace of domestic production, nurturing China's supplier system is an important task. At present, the proportion of Chinese suppliers in the Volvo supplier team is still relatively small. As of 2009, Volvo's suppliers are still mainly from Sweden, Germany, Belgium, and other European countries (see Table 6).