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SUV popularity helps push Volvo to record sales

Swedish car maker’s line-up has been inundated by new SUVs

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The SUVs in Volvo's range has helped it towards record sales

Volvo has announced record sales for the first half of 2019, with its range of SUVs helping the Swedish manufacturer to sell 340,286 cars worldwide.

The sales, taken between January and June, represented a 7.3 per cent increase on 2018’s figures, and were helped no end by the firm’s SUV range – which accounted for 60.7 per cent of the company’s total sales.

Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, said: “At a time when most markets in the world see stagnating car sales, we have had strong growth in the first half.

“We continue to take market share in all regions where we operate, but increased pricing pressure and tariffs have decreased our operating profit. The cost measures we took earlier this year will come into effect in the second half of the year.”

In the UK, Volvo sold 30,026 cars in the first six months of the year – an increase of 30 per cent year-on-year. It also saw growth of 32 per cent and 10.2 per cent in Germany and China respectively.

The sales have helped Volvo to achieve record revenues of 130.1 billion SEK (£11 billion), which comes as a 5.9 per cent year-on-year increase. However, its operating profit fell, as a result of greater investment in research and technology, as well as cost-cutting measures.

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