Volvo Cars sold 31,760 cars in April, a decrease of 43.8 percent compared to the same period last year. This is despite the fact that sales in China went up by 20.8 percent over the same period, Volvo Cars writes in a press release.
Corona pandemic has a significant impact on the US and Europe market, with sales slumping by 66.8 percent in April and 53.8 percent in the US.
"In Asia, especially in China, we already see that the recovery is strong, so in China we are increasing sales and now we expect that Europe and the US will also start their recovery," says Stefan Elfström, press officer at Volvo Cars.
China is Volvo Cars' single largest market, about a fifth of total car sales there. But since the rest of the world is still basically down, the consequences are great.
- Now we focus on continuing to adapt production to demand by means of working time reductions that have already been implemented, it works well, says Stefan Elfström.
"There are bright spots"At the end of last week, around 1,300 engineers were notified of termination and a few hundred more consultants were affected by termination.
- We are now negotiating with the trade unions on how the alerts should be implemented. We have no further notice planned, says Stefan Elfström.
Elfström does not dare to guess how long the corona crisis will last, nor can he say how long it is thought that it will take before car sales are up to normal levels.
"There are bright spots, including sales of hybrid cars, despite the crisis," he says.
Last week, Volvo Cars notified 1300 employees about the termination. See more about it in the clip below.
Javascript is turned off
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Learn more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser. We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.
Learn more about browser support
Volvo Cars CEO on the message: "We are forced to prioritize" Photo: TT / SVTJavascript is turned off
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Learn more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser. We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.
Learn more about browser support
Jörgen Olsson, club chairman of the union club Volvo Cars. Photo: TT / Volvo Cars