Volvo Cars trumpeted its performance in European markets, while it confirmed that trading challenges in both the U.S. and China saw its global revenues fall 8.5% for the first quarter of 2026.
Revenues for the quarter fell to 72.6 billion Swedish kronor ($784 million) from 82.9 billion kronor for the same period in 2025 largely blamed on “a very challenging external environment,” Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Cars’ CEO, said in an April 29 statement.
First-quarter operating profit saw a drop with 1.6 billion Swedish kronor reported against 1.9 billion krona profit for the same period the year before, Samuelsson said during a presentation of the Q1 data.
The financial update follows Volvo sales totals released earlier this month, summing that in Q1 it saw an 11% drop in global sales for Q1 2026, versus Q1 2025. Volvo reported that electrified models represented 47.3% of vehicles sold in the quarter, the highest portion of what it termed “legacy premium carmakers.”
In the Americas, where Volvo saw a 28% drop in sales for the quarter, year over year, consumer confidence “is under significant pressure” and the market is taking longer to recover from the removal of the $7,500 tax break for U.S. shoppers hitting both electric and plug-in hybrid model sales, his statement added.
Meanwhile in China, Volvo said it continues to face tough competition on pricing and new product launches by competitors.
However, the company did see progress with its PHEV products, led by the new XC70 long-range PHEV helped by a new front-wheel-drive variant.
In a later Q&A with journalists and analysts, Samuelsson said this model potentially could be added to its range in the U.S.
“It has been a mixed bag quarter,” he said. “External factors, (an) extremely turbulent geopolitical situation, tariffs, currency, also has been negative for us altogether,” he added.
Yet EVs, particularly in the automaker’s strongest European region, saw their sales share grow from 19% in Q1 2025 to 24% for the same period this year.
Also, Volvo largely maintained its profitability with a margin of 2.2% for Q1 2026 compared to 2.3% last year, said Samuelsson.
“The areas we can control continued to improve in Q1,” he said. “Our BEV share increased to a class-leading level, and we delivered a strong momentum in our cost and cash actions.”
As an example of this, Samuelsson during the Q&A session pointed to the unexpectedly high demand for Volvo’s new EX60 midsize electric SUV priced to match that of its PHEV sibling model.
“So, even with that pricing, you can say that the margin for this car will be better than for a plug-in hybrid,” said Samuelsson.
