Investors welcomed Volvo Cars’ Q3 profit results that beat forecasts despite reporting a 7% year-on-year drop in sales, with sales in the premium market down about 5%.
The automaker’s operating income was 6.4 billion Swedish kronor ($683.5 million) in Q3 compared to SEK 5.8 billion in the same period last year.
During an investors call, company executives put the boost in profits down to the benefits of its “turnaround plan” and the global success of its best-selling mid-size SUV, the XC60.
“In a tough market we delivered a solid third-quarter result and our cost and cash actions are delivering,” Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo’s chief executive said in a company statement.
“We managed to offset the squeeze on pricing in a shrinking market in one area and that’s with our best-seller the XC60, whose upgrade has helped us,” he told investors.
Samuelsson pointed to the success of a wave of 3,000 job cuts in May as part of its turnaround program to cut production costs across the board.
Volvo’s CFO, Fredrik Hansson, said the company did not have to spend the money it anticipated and budgeted for its turnaround strategy “to do the headcount reductions that we planned and that we have now executed.” “We don't foresee any major layoffs going forward either,” he added.
Meanwhile, the brand’s top-selling model, the XC60, saw global sales of 20,496 cars in September 2025, up from 18,096 for the same month last year according to data provided by the company.
Volvo’s parent company, Geely, brought back Samuelsson in March of this year to instigate a root-and-brand turnaround strategy to offset the trading challenges at the start of the year including U.S. import tariffs on vehicles.
He also echoed Hansson’s confidence that future employee layoffs will be achieved through natural wastage rather than enforced redundancies.
“To avoid this… we have to be very restrictive when somebody leaves the company and look to a replacement within the company as a first priority,” Samuelsson said. “That will give a yearly reduction in headcount… to have a leaner and a better performing organization and avoiding coming into the same situation again with layoffs,” he added.
The company is also hoping to replicate the sales success of its XC60 with the launch of its all-electric sibling, the EX60 planned for the beginning of 2026.
“We are now ramping up sales of our EV cars and are fully on track towards the very important January launch of the EX60 in the largest and most popular electric segment,” said Samuelsson.
However, while he said the company will be able to offer an EV option across its vehicle range by 2030, it will not be ditching ICE/hybrid technology completely.
“We need to become fully electric by 2030 but we cannot force our customer to be that so we have to provide bridge solutions, so-called PHEVs,” Samuelsson said during the investors call.
