Manufacturer: Volvo  Total sales: 2013 427,840  Headquarters: Gothenburg, Sweden  Global market share: 2.0%

Capturing Chinese sales…

Volvo recorded a 17.9% sales uplift over March 2013 in the first quarter of the year, achieving 47,850 global sales. This is indicative of a positive upward sales trend for the company, despite a turbulent four years of restructuring following the sale of Volvo Cars by Ford to Geely Automobile (Zhejiang Geely Holding Group) in August 2010.

Under Geely’s ownership, Volvo has been ideally placed to exploit the financial and legislative advantages of being a subsidiary of a Chinese brand. The region was Volvo’s largest retail market in March 2014 with 7,043 vehicles sold – up 39% versus the same month last year. The XC60 crossover was the best-selling model in China, while the S60L (a long-wheelbase version of the S60 designed exclusively to appeal to Chinese customers) and the V40 hatchback continued to achieve strong sales, in second and third place respectively.

China remains a key market for Volvo in 2014, where it will continue to implement its China Growth Plan and work towards the launch its first jointly-developed car with Geely Automobile as early as 2015.

Volvo showed signs of recovery in the United States after its -10.1% sales downturn last year, boosted by the strong performance of the S60 and XC60 models in Q1 2014. US deliveries of the V60 have now begun in earnest, helping to account for some of the 600 extra sales in March 2014 over the same period last year.

In Europe, Volvo reported positive sales trend in several key markets, with the UK, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands all recording solid growth. The UK became Volvo’s second largest market in March 2014, with 6,810 cars sold for the month. Overall, sales in Western Europe were up by 20.6% compared to March

2013, while the first quarter growth amounted to 9%. Growth was also recorded in other important international markets, such as Russia (+12%) and Japan (+8%).

Volvo also reported a strong start-of year result in home-market Sweden, with four models on the top-10 list of best-selling cars and Q1 sales increasing by 14.2% compared to Q1 2013.

Looking at Volvo’s full-year 2013 sales, the XC60 recorded its best year ever, achieving 114,010 total sales (2012: 106,203) to become the best-selling Volvo model. V40 came in second with 78,307 sales (rising to 99,911 units with the V40 Cross Country included), while the S60 finished in third place, with 61,579 total sales.

Volvo has also enjoyed success with the V60 Plug-in Hybrid, which captured 7,378 sales during 2013. Combining a powerful five-cylinder diesel engine with an electric rear axle, the initial batch of 1,000 sold out before reaching showrooms in 2012.

Exemption from the registration fee in the Netherlands, which ended on the 1st January, helped drive particularly strong demand during 2013, with 70% of V60 Plugin Hybrids sold to Dutch customers. Volvo is planning to extend production to 10,000 units this year, spread over a wider customer base but with 50% still to be sold in the Netherlands. New entry-level and sporty R-Design versions, depending on the market, are aimed at broadening its appeal from the single-model range offered to date.

Working toward parts independence

Volvo has spent the last four years working towards independence from former owner Ford’s parts bin, and the first signs of this step away from Detroit are now showing in the range.

The carmaker’s new four-cylinder Drive-E engines debuted in the 60 and 70 clusters at the start of the year, and will be available in the V40 shortly.

By the end of 2015, all of Volvo’s familiar engine denominations will be replaced with four-cylinder turbocharged petrol or diesel units, equipped with variants of the same automatic or manual gearbox.

Not only does this give the carmaker a much-needed cut in running costs, but it has a number of advantages. Despite a compact model range, Volvo had eight engines and eight transmissions to contend with, each mounted differently and sharing almost no parts. All Drive-E engines and gearboxes have standardised mounting points, and the number of unique parts are reduced by 60%.

This new engine family is also compatible with all levels of electrification, from Stop-Start systems with energy recuperation to plug-in hybrids, and there is the opportunity to downsize to three-cylinder units in future. Power output is varied by turbocharging and can be supplemented by an electric motor.

At the end of the year, the XC90 will debut Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which separates the vehicle into shared modules, and allows 40% of components to be shared throughout the range. Designed to accommodate electrification, SPA also reduces weight by 100-150kg compared to current generation cars and allows Volvo to fit new driver assistance and safety systems.

Speaking about the launch of the all-new XC90, Alain Visser, senior vice president, marketing, sales and customer service at Volvo Cars, told International Fleet World: 'For us, it is our flagship – our premium car. It is replacing an iconic car so there is a lot of expectation. We are almost seeing it as a re-launch of the Volvo brand, which it will be in a lot of the markets, so we are very ambitious about it. We think the car both from a design and a quality and innovation point of view sets quite a new standard.'

Volvo continues to innovate in the area of safety, with an end goal that nobody will be killed or seriously injured in one of its new cars from 2020 onwards. Autonomous driving capability is also a key research area for Volvo, with the aim to add fully commercialised products with autonomous capability to the range by 2019.

View from the top

Alain Visser, senior vice president of marketing, sales and customer service, explains how the V40 and a new diesel engine are helping Volvo soar…

How has Volvo performed in the global market so far in 2014?

We have analysed the first quarter of 2014, and fleet volumes are up around 22% quarter-over-quarter for deliveries. Our total sales figure (which may include vehicles that haven’t been delivered yet) is also up 29% and that for us shows that our models are really taking up and being accepted into the fleet market, particularly the V40 and the V40 Cross Country. There is very much an upward trend from our point of view, which goes way beyond the positive industry trends.

The V40 has been particularly popular with your international buyers, why do you think this is?

Well of course, because it is such a great car! We have had very good reactions from both press and consumers, both in terms of design and the overall quality of the car, even compared to tough competitors like the A3, 1-Series and E-Class.

We are extremely happy with its performance – V40 accounted for 29% of our total deliveries in its first year and it has become a very popular car line with our major accounts. We think its popularity is driven by the fact that it has become a true, clever alternative to the German premium brands.

What impact has the new diesel engine had?

We’re very happy with the new engine, only very shortly after launch the D4 is already represented in 20% of our sales in the fleet market and quickly growing.

Overall, both our new petrol and diesel engines are selling significantly beyond both volume and market share of what we had anticipated.