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Volvo Sales Break Fifth Consecutive Sales Record in 2018, XC60 Leads the Way

The increase in sales for SUVs is global trend that started a few years back and seems to have continued in 2018. This reality was already confirmed by the first two carmakers to have announced their sales results for the year that just ended.
Volvo marks another record year 1 photo
Photo: Volvo
On Thursday, Kia said its Sportage SUV was the best selling model in its lineup. The Sportage was joined at the top of the sales charts on Friday by Volvo’s XC60, a model that was the Swedes’ best selling car last year.

Volvo said in sold in 2018 a total of 642,253 cars, marking the first time since the company’s birth in 1927 when the 600,000 units milestone is reached and surpassed. It also represents the fifth consecutive year of record sales for the Chinese-owned company.

The number, albeit small when compared to other players in the automotive industry, represents a 12.4 percent increase in Volvo sales compared to 2017. The growth was spearheaded by the United States, a market that posted a 20.6 percent increase, to 98,263 cars.

China fared great as well, recording an increase in sales of 14.1 percent to 130,593 cars. The home market, Europe, ranks third, far behind the other two, with an increase of only 6.4 percent, but makes for the bulk of cars sold: 317,838 units.

In all three regions, the best selling model was the XC60, which accounts globally for nearly one-third of all the Volvo’s sold, or 189,459 cars (in 2017, the model was equally successful, having sold 184,966 units). Another SUV, the XC90, ranks second, with a total of 94,182 cars, up from 87,518 units in 2017.

The top three best selling Volvo cars podium is completed by the Volvo V40/V40 Cross Country, which accounted for 77,587 cars of the total. The figure is actually a decrease from 2017’s levels of 95,370 units.

Unlike Kia, Volvo did not announce a target for 2019, but it most definitely hopes sales will rise once more, especially because of the launch on the U.S. market of the locally-built S60.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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