Volvo Cars has reported a stable financial result for the first quarter of 2022, with gradual impact from the market disturbances caused by the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 lockdowns in Asia.
Jim Rowan, chief executive of Volvo Cars, said: “In the first few months of 2022, the war in Ukraine has destroyed lives and displaced millions of innocent people. The same war has also sent already rising inflation to new heights and further disrupted supply chains that were already fragile. When summarising Volvo Cars’ performance during this first quarter, I am incredibly pleased that we have delivered such stable results.”
The interim report for the first quarter, which can be found here, shows that Volvo Cars’ revenue amounted to SEK 74.3 billion, up from SEK 68.6 billion in the same period last year. EBIT for Volvo’s core operations was SEK 5.9 billion or 7.9%, and reported EBIT was SEK 6 billion or 8.1%.
Volvo Cars sold a total of 148,295 cars in the first quarter as the supply chain constraints affecting the company continued to slowly ease. However, late in the quarter, the company was hit by a shortage of a specific component, which will also impact production during the second quarter.
The automotive manufacturer considers this a temporary setback and expects the supply chains to improve in the second half of the year. The company expects marginal growth in sales volumes for the full year 2022 compared to 2021, although uncertainty is high.
The company’s plug-in hybrid and fully electric Recharge models remain popular among customers and the share of electrified cars continued to rise. In the first quarter, Recharge sales made up 34% of total sales, of which fully electric cars made up 8%, doubling in the space of the past two quarters. That share will continue to grow as the company increases its annual production capacity of fully electric cars to 150,000 units after the summer. For the full year 2022, Volvo Cars expects continued high growth of fully electric vehicles.
The number of active subscriptions in the first quarter increased by 174% compared with the same period last year. This growth was driven by customer demand in combination with a broadened offer as online fleet sales for small- and medium-size enterprises were introduced both in the UK and in Sweden. In the first quarter, online sales made up 13% of total sales in established markets.
Volvo Cars’ efforts to reduce its CO
2 footprint per car are progressing according to plan. In the first quarter, CO
2 emissions were 13.4% lower compared with 2018, supporting the company’s 2025 ambition of a 40% CO
2 reduction per car.
Mr Rowan added: “The strategic direction remains clear and very much in focus: the fastest transformer in the industry, a fully electric brand with direct consumer relations, and lower carbon emissions is our way forward.
“To achieve our ambitions, we will increase our pace of product development, strengthen the resilience of our supply chain, and accelerate our digital and software capabilities.”