Sweden Volvo cars Thursday reported 12% of the increase in year -round operating revenue and record revenue, but warned of heavy market challenges that are in advance of intensification of competition with electric vehicles and global tariffs.
The company’s operational revenue was 22.3 billion of Swedish crowns ($ 2.04 billion) in 2024 in the midst of an increase in sales of 8%.
However, in the last three months of the year, the profit has slid 28%, which the company said was affected by a one -off damage to the Crunor Circle compared to a common investment with a Swedish battery programmer Northvolt, Novo Energy. The sale from year in the fourth quarter increased 1% more, but missed 6% and 2% in the US in China
The company repeated the guidelines for 2026 for the realization of basic earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 7-8%, but said that 2025 would be a “challenging and transition year” according to the long-term ambitions of Volvo car growth because it expected more slowly more slowly Market growth and “increased discounts” throughout the industry.
This will make it difficult to reconcile with the quantities and profitability of the company 2024, he added.
Volvo Ex30 completely electric car was shown during all Electric London 2024 in Excel in London, March 28, 2024.
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Many car manufacturers are struggling with increased competition and high expenses in the electric vehicle space, including leading players such Tesla.
Volvo cars In September he abolished his plan Only sell EV until 2030, citing customers of “different adoption speeds”. In its 2024 results, the sales of EV battery sales increased to 23% compared to 16% during the previous year.
“I think this is a reasonable performance given the amount of turbulence we have seen even in [20]24, “Executive Director Volvo Cars Jim Rowan told CNBC” Squawk Box Europe “about the results in an interview on Thursday.
“IN [20]25 I think we will see that the turbulence is increasing. And the way I frame it, I think we will see turbulence in terms of trade tariffs, maybe some geopolitics, and we will see some changes in politics. I also think we will see the transition to EV a little slowing, which is fine for Volvo cars, because we have a mild hybrid technology as well as including hybrid technology. “
Global automotive supplies were clogged on Monday after US President Donald Trump announced 25% of tariffs in Canada and Mexico, a key base for production and supply for imports of vehicles in the United States, many returned to Earth Since the implementation of duties has been paused for 30 days.
Rowan said that Volvo Cars now evaluates whether he should switch his production lines to protect himself.
The company had to navigate already Increased tariffs for EV coming from China to the European Union As a result, he moved production from China to Belgium, he said.
“Last year, we saw that the batteries increased from 7.5% to 25% when you introduce them to the US if they originate from the US from the country without a free trade agreement,” he told CNBC.
“So, we will see more of it and we have to wait to see how it appears, of course, but we are preparing to see if we need to start looking at the relocation of production or even move the supplier to different parts of the world.
“Then we will see this great transition to technology outside the electrification, so that software, silicon, connection and data will become much deeper,” Rowan added.
The high cost of developing new automotive technology, such as partially independent vehicles, will be expected to stimulate the industry consolidation, which has recently led to that Talks about volatile merging in Japan Honda and Nissan.
On a competition of Chinese players like BydRowan told CNBC: “The discount is focused mainly on the entry, the mass market EVS.”
He added that his company does not “really play in that sector” and mostly sells mild and additional electric hybrids in China, using the demand for a premium offer.
“To je rečeno, mislim da ćemo početi vidjeti možda 2025. godine nekoliko dodatnih popusta koji bi se mogli početi napajati na premium tržištu, kao i neke zapadne marke gube tržišni udio u Kini. Tada su, naravno, oni, naravno, oni su, Of course, they, of course, retreat to their domestic markets and other global markets and try to pick up a market share there to keep revenues at the same level, “Rowan said.
“So, I think that hyper-concurrence and price and discipline start in China. But I think it will permeate it through Europe and in North America, by 2025.”
