A few days ago, Volvo announced its 2021 sales report card, a total of 698,693 units, an increase of 5.6% year-on-year, just one step away from breaking through the 700,000 vehicle mark. In the face of global supply chain problems that are ravaging the industry, this achievement also demonstrates the resilience of Volvo's revival plan.
In terms of specific data, the European market is still Volvo's big granary, with a year-on-year increase of 1.8% year-on-year, with cumulative sales of 293,471 vehicles. The Chinese market followed suit, with a 3% year-on-year increase and cumulative sales of 171,676 units. The North American market ranked third, with cumulative sales of 122,173 units, but the growth rate reached 10.9%, the first of the three major markets, indicating that Volvo is gradually finding a feeling in the North American market.
Markets other than the three major markets can not be ignored, with a year-on-year increase of 15.2% year-on-year and cumulative sales of 111,373 vehicles, helping Volvo achieve full bloom in 2021.
It is worth noting that more than 27% of the 698,693 Volvo cars sold worldwide in 2021 will come from the Recover series, which shows that Volvo's electrification transformation has achieved remarkable results.
Among them, the North American market has the fastest growth rate, with a year-on-year increase of 214.7%, sales reaching 22,820 units, and the growth rate of pure electric models reaching a staggering 4023.9%. Although last year's low base is one of the reasons, such exaggerated growth also shows that north American consumers' acceptance of electric vehicles is gradually increasing.
Followed by the Chinese market, the Recharge series of models increased by 95% year-on-year to 11,697 units, of which 905 pure electric models, an increase of 2561.8%, plug-in hybrid models 10,792 units, an increase of 81%. However, since the Chinese market's acceptance and development speed of new energy models is obviously ahead of other regions, volvo still has considerable room for improvement compared with competitors, whether it is sales share or sales share.
Finally, the European market is undoubtedly the main battlefield of Volvo's electrification transformation, with the Sales share of the Recharge series reaching 44.4%, and the sales of pure electric vehicles also increased by 272.6% year-on-year to 16,571 units.
At present, Volvo is the fastest, most decisive and most targeted of all luxury brands.
Last May, Volvo announced its strategic plan to achieve full electrification by 2025, become a 100% pure electric luxury car company by 2030, and develop into a global climate zero-load benchmark by 2040. In June, Volvo also signed an agreement with Northwater to establish a joint venture to manufacture battery plants and develop new power batteries to meet the needs of Volvo's pure electric models.
At the same time, Volvo is planning to increase the production capacity of pure electric models at its manufacturing plants in Ghent, Belgium, and Taizhou, China, and expects that by this summer, the annual production capacity of pure electric vehicles at the two plants will increase by 10 times from the current 15,000 to more than 150,000 units.
More importantly, with volvo's successful listing, the funds raised from the capital market will also be fully invested in the electrification transformation, including the purchase of large die-casting machines in the factory to produce one-piece molded bodywork, the addition of electric drives and built-in battery production lines, etc., and the remaining 30% will also reorganize the entire industrial system to ensure that it remains relatively leading in the next electrification track.