Volvo Cars had its best sales month ever in March, largely because of strong sales of its new EX30 battery-electric small SUV.
The automaker sold 78,970 cars in March, a rise of 25 percent compared to the same month last year. That is the most vehicles Volvo has sold globally in a single month in its 97-year history, the company said.
The previous record was 78,761 cars sold in December 2020.
The catalyst was the EX30. Volvo’s most affordable model, starting at €37,240 in Germany, accounted for 55 percent of the company’s 15,838-unit increase in sales last month compared with March 2023.
In the first quarter, Volvo increased sales by 19,749 vehicles, up 12 percent. The EX30, which has overcome an early software hiccup, accounted for 14,544 of those sales, or 74 percent of the overall increase during the quarter.
Helping Volvo is that it currently has few rivals in the electric small SUV segment.
The competition includes the Smart #1, which uses the same platform as the EX30 but is slightly more expensive at €37,490; the Opel Mokka Electric, which starts at €40,800; the Jeep Avenger, which starts at €38,500; and the MG 4, which starts at €34,990. All prices are according to the automakers’ German websites.
The EX30 also jumped onto the top 10 ranking of battery-electric vehicle sales after two months, according to market researcher Dataforce (see table, below).