As we all know, among the second-tier luxury brands, the strongest performance is Cadillac and Lexus, and now there is a domestic brand Hongqi Automobile that is strongly involved, and even surpassed Cadillac and Lexus with a ceiling of 272,000 vehicles in 2021. The next point is Volvo, the number of insurance in 2021 is 172,000 vehicles, although it is a slight increase of 0.6% year-on-year, but from the perspective of the entire second-tier luxury camp, Volvo happens to be in the position of "high or low".
Volvo's performance in the market has also not seemed to be going well this year, with global sales of 47,561 units in January this year, down 20.2% compared to the same period last year. Sales in the Chinese market were 14,629 units, a year-on-year decline of 12.8%.
There is no doubt that in the competition of second-tier luxury brands, Volvo is somewhat "left behind" trend, but in order to enhance its competitiveness in the market, Volvo still has a lot of actions, let's talk about what it has done.
On the one hand, it is actively embracing electrification.
In recent years, all brands have held high the banner of new energy, although the process of luxury brands has been promoted slowly, but there is always action, such as Volvo, which put forward the goal of comprehensive transformation into a pure electric luxury car company in 2030.
All models, including the 40, 60, and 90 series, are now electrified and offer a variety of power options including all-electric models, plug-in hybrid models, and mild hybrid models. Recently, Volvo announced that it will invest SEK 10 billion in the next few years at its Torslanda manufacturing plant in Sweden in preparation for the production of the next generation of pure electric vehicles with longer range, faster charging speeds and lower costs.
It is worth noting that in 2021 Volvo's plug-in hybrid models have ranked among the top three in the luxury car market for full-year sales, which means that Volvo's transformation in electrification is still very successful.
On the other hand, we have to talk about the upcoming domestic XC90.
The arrival of this car will not only further expand Volvo's product lineup in the domestic car market, but more importantly, its competitiveness is quite good.
As we all know, the imported version of XC90 is priced at 638,900-78.19 million yuan in China, but the price will definitely be reduced a lot after domestic production, not to mention that the current imported models have a great preferential margin in the terminal market. According to netizens' predictions, the price of domestic XC90 may only need about 490,000, and the attraction is enough.
As for the power part, it is expected that the domestically produced XC90 will continue to be equipped with a 2.0T engine + 48V light mix system, matching the 8-speed automatic transmission, and is expected to be equipped with four-wheel drive. In addition, the plug-in hybrid version of the T8 model will also be launched at the same time.
In fact, XC90 domestic production is beneficial and harmless to Volvo. Judging from the current action of luxury brands, BMW X5, Lincoln Aviator, Cadillac XT6 and other medium and large SUV models have been or are about to be domestically produced, and Volvo naturally needs a model to occupy market share at this time.
Of course, if the price is really 490,000, the competitiveness of the domestic XC90 is still very strong, coupled with the minimalist Nordic shape, a large enough riding space, a car environment with no smell, the details of the material and workmanship are very conscientious, and the safety performance that everyone praises, XC90 is expected to be favored by consumers, we wait and see.
"The pictures are all from the Internet, if there is any infringement, please contact the author to delete"