In 2021
After the global sales reached a historic peak, starting in 2022, Volvo's sales have entered the quagmire, and from January to April this year, Volvo's global cumulative sales volume was 195,445 units, down 21.3% year-on-year, and sales in the Chinese market were 44,277 units, down 28.2% year-on-year. In particular, sales in April were only 8579 vehicles, down 47.8% year-on-year, almost waist-to-waist. As we all know, Volvo's models have relatively high terminal discounts, which are called "broken bones" by many people, but now no matter how fractures can not be sold, volvo's problems in the end what is the problem?
The core technology is weak, and the pace of new energy transformation is slow
Volvo has always been a niche car brand, one of the most important reasons is that as a luxury car brand, its technical strength is relatively weak, after being acquired by Ford, Volvo is actually very dependent on Ford's technology, in the three major areas of automobile tradition, Volvo also has a certain technical strength in the engine field, but the models on sale, They are all 2.0T engines, lacking a large-displacement engine to support the field, not to mention compared with the BBA, even with the second-tier luxury brands in the same ranks as Volvo Cadillac, Lincoln, Lexus and other brands have a big gap.
Volvo, which is relatively weak in the field of fuel vehicles, is also relatively slow in the transformation of new energy, and there is only one pure electric model launched at present, that is, XC40, or an oil-to-electricity model. The reason why Volvo can gain a foothold in second-tier luxury is mainly because it adheres to the concept of safety and environmental protection, and has a certain audience.
Safety labels are challenged
When it comes to Volvo, many people's first thought is safety, the inventor of the seat belt, etc. In the era of fuel vehicles, Volvo's excellent active and passive safety is indeed well-known, but the problem is that in the era of new energy vehicles, Volvo's safety label may be difficult to maintain.
On the one hand, there are more dimensions of safety judgment of new energy vehicles, including collision safety, battery safety, network security, etc., which have brought more challenges to Volvo's golden sign of safety, and how to maintain its label in the era of fuel vehicles is Volvo's next focus.
On the other hand, there are more and more car companies that flaunt safety, and the safety judgment standards are different, Volvo's absolute advantage in safety is no longer there, such as BYD's blade battery, the Great Wall's Dayu battery, GAC's magazine battery, are all emphasizing the safety of the battery, and in the case of power batteries are purchased from suppliers, and automatic assisted driving technology, the future is likely to use the supplier's technology, Volvo to promote absolutely better safety, there is not much convincing.
The arrival of the new energy wave has brought greater impact to luxury car brands, including Volvo, and even the sales of BBA have been greatly impacted, not to mention the relatively niche Volvo, Volvo's transformation determination is not large enough, the pace is not fast enough, with the rise of new car-making forces, and other car companies to accelerate the transformation, Volvo's crisis may have just begun.