The goal of Volvo Cars to sell 800,000 vehicles globally by 2020 was derailed by the pandemic and the semiconductor shortage in 2021. Despite the setbacks, CEO Hakan Samuelsson (photo) believes topping Volvo’s sales record of 705,000 vehicles set in 2019 is “within reach,” even though the automaker took a big hit to production in the third quarter.
“The fourth quarter definitely looks like it will be better, so the loss in production will be lower. Overall, things will be better in the final quarter of 2021, but they still will not be back to normal. For the full year, we will sell more cars than last year, and we will improve our profitability. By the first quarter of next year, we should be back on track with only minor disruption from the chip shortage. It’s too early to say what that will mean for the full-year results in 2022.
It’s within reach, but it depends on how the production problems in Far East develop. We are close, so maybe we will celebrate a new all-time high. It’s not impossible.
“When it comes to the day-to-day basis, here in Sweden we are back to normal. You don’t see anybody wearing masks, not even when you’re traveling within the country on an airplane. Most people are back in their offices. The big problem we have when it comes to conducting business is traveling to the U.S. and China. We are planning to go soon to the U.S. but China is still very isolated. We haven’t been there in almost two years. This is slowing us down as we try to get everybody to understand the objectives and execute the changes. How much of an impact this has is unknown. But we probably would be further along if we didn’t have the restrictions. I have been really frustrated that we cannot speak with our retailers face-to-face in many places because of the restrictions.”
