Volvo Cars' top executive has set an even tougher 2021 sales target for the automaker's Recharge line of electrified cars after the automaker narrowly missed his 2020 goal.
"About a quarter of our sales globally should be Recharge this year," CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Automotive News Europe.
The Recharge family of plug-in hybrids and full-electric cars accounted for 17 percent of Volvo's 2020 global volume, up from 6.5 percent in 2019 but still below the 20 percent target set by Samuelsson, who envisions Volvo being an electric-only brand by 2030.
He is bullish because 19 percent of Volvo's global sales in the second-half of 2020 were Recharge models. Europe led the way with Recharge models accounting for 36 percent of Volvo's overall sales in the second half and 31 percent for the full year.
"I'm quite satisfied with the development we are seeing," Samuelsson said. "Recharge sales will continue to grow."
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"Recharge sales will continue to grow," CEO Hakan Samuelsson said.
Volvo Chief Financial Officer Carla De Geyseleer told ANE that the electrified models have also been a financial success.
"It's not just about the uptick of the volume, we are making a good margin when we sell these cars," she said.
As Volvo was preparing for its aggressive push into the electrified sector Samuelsson remembers many people telling him that EVs would have a negative margin.
"We have not seen that," he said. "We have sold them with the same margin as our conventional premium cars."
According to Volvo's figures, it has a 10 percent global share of a segment Samuelsson called "electric premium," which is made up of a combination of plug-in hybrids and full-electric cars from brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla.
"That is a much better market share than we have in the traditional premium segment [which is about 7 percent]," he said. "We believe this will be the new premium segment."
Volvo more than doubled sales of its Recharge line of plug-in hybrids and full-electric vehicles to 115,436 last year. The battery-driven XC40 Recharge P8 (shown) accounted for 4,659 of those sales.
Right now most of Volvo's Recharge volume comes from plug-in hybrid versions of models such as the XC60 midsize SUV, but the CEO said the share of full-electric sales from the model line will rise steadily as it introduces a new battery-driven car each year.
The first member of the family, which debuted last year, was the Volvo XC40 Recharge P8. It will be joined this year by another compact electric model, likely to be named the C40.
A full-electric version of the third-generation XC90 flagship SUV is due in 2022.
By 2025 Volvo aims to have five full-electric cars in its lineup and expects those models to account for half of its global sales.
