‘January marks a positive start of a growth year for Volvo Cars and we have a tremendous amount of good news to look forward to during 2014,’ said Alain Visser, senior vice president marketing, sales and customer service at Volvo Cars. ‘Not only will the fantastic all-new Volvo XC90 be a milestone for us, we will also strengthen other product offers as well as improving our presence in several key markets, all of which will grow our volumes and market shares.’

Last month saw the brand’s sales rise to 30,372 cars, up 2.6% versus January 2013.

Sales of 5,810 – up 21.6% – were recorded in China, the brand’s top market in January, with the newly launched long wheelbase S60L model having been well received whilst the main growth drivers were the V40 and XC60 models.

Conversely sales in United States were down to 3,792 cars, with the carmaker attributing this to a general downturn on the US car market as well as extraordinarily high sales in January last year.

Sales in Sweden were up by 19.6%, with the Volvo XC60 and XC70 models the main growth drivers.

Western European sales declined somewhat in January, but the brand said ‘the retail order situation is extremely strong, pointing at a positive development going forward’. It added that it is aiming at strengthening its presence in Europe by launching new products such as the new engine family.

The carmaker also noted that Japan is one of its key growth markets and January marked a strong start of the year with retail sales increasing by 132% versus last year.

The Volvo XC60 was the best-selling model in January with 8,947 sold cars (2013: 7,975), followed by the Volvo V40 for which deliveries reached 5,071 cars (4,789). Including the Cross Country version, the V40 reached 6,575 sold cars. The third best-selling model was the Volvo V60 with 4,628 cars (3,463). 

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