Sales of the Volvo XC40 will grow to 150,000 units this year, double the number sold in 2018, according to Volvo's European boss, Lex Kerssemakers.
The massive growth will come from the XC40's first full year of sales plus, crucially, more production capacity for the compact SUV at Volvo's plant in Ghent, Belgium.
The XC40 is fundamental to Volvo’s aspiration to build its sales to 800,000 units per year. In 2018, it sold 642,253 cars, breaking the 600,000 mark for the first in its history.
“Breaking through 600,000 units has been an ultimate dream for 15 years,” said Kerssemakers. “We want to be at 800,000, but I’m not going to say when.”
The Volvo XC60 was Volvo’s biggest-selling car last year, with 189,459 examples sold, while the Volvo XC90 was second on 94,182.
However, the V40 hatchback will be discontinued this year and won’t be replaced for two to three years. It's unlikely that Volvo will meet its 800,000 sales target until that replacement, which is set to be a higher-riding, sportier model, arrives.
Volvo in the UK is striving towards 80,000 sales per year, 10% of the brand's global total. Last year, it sold 50,319 units, and UK managing director Jon Wakefield hopes that will comfortably increase into the 60,000s this year.
“If you go back to 2015, we had exposure to 30 or 40% of the market," he said. "We now have exposure to 58% of the UK market. The XC40 gives us so much opportunity. It will be natural growth.
“Global demand meant we didn’t get too many XC40s registered last year – six or seven thousand. Availability is something that we’re fighting for globally. There’s plenty of room for another 10,000 XC40s here.”
Volvo UK will launch an online sales service in the next couple of months. Customers will be able to complete the whole purchasing process online or liaise with their local dealer at any stage of it.
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Volvo XC40 review
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Delivery
Yes this a great car but the launch and delivery is an absolute nightmare
I have had a car on order (top of range inscription T5) since may 2018 and still no delivery date and I know of others who are in the same position or have cancelled their order
Unless Volvo start to be a little more customer orientated instead of just pushing back all questions to dealers they are going to loose a lot more orders as other makers new models are catching up rapidly
I have driven Volvos for many years 850R and still driving V70T5 but this is the first time I have considered going to another manufacturer come on Volvo get your act together
Like the looks
well said
Yep well said too much time is wasted by car magazine testers on that ring in Germany and how quick a certain car can get round it. People have ordinary rings ie ring roads to get round and as we all know they are barely allowing cars to go over 40 MPH.