In the first half of 2022, Volvo Cars still achieved good sales results despite many market uncertainties. Behind the achievements, it is inseparable from the public's recognition of the Volvo brand. Recently, the 2022 Volvo Cars mid-year event was held in Beijing to discuss the word "security".
1. Volvo Cars’ results for the first half of 2022. Faced with many unfavorable factors such as the epidemic and core shortages in the first half of the year, Volvo’s market share remained stable. In June, the epidemic recovered and policies improved, and Volvo quickly launched purchase tax-related policies. , performance rebounded strongly (73.9% month-on-month, much higher than the overall passenger car market 42%), sales (16,448 units) surpassed Lexus, ranking fifth among luxury brands. In the first half of the year, Volvo faced the launch of competitive heavyweight new cars and a large number of marketing actions. The market share of its main models performed steadily: XC90 (+0.4%), XC60 (+0%), and S60 (+0.8%), all achieving year-on-year achieved positive growth and consolidated its market position.
2. Important actions of Volvo Cars in the first half of the year. Under the tide of electrification, Volvo, as the traditional luxury car company with the most determined attitude towards transformation, is advancing the electrification process in an orderly manner. This foresight and determination have become Volvo's "security" in the face of market changes. "Feeling", focusing on the electrification transformation, Volvo Cars has given a specific timetable - to achieve full electrification in 2025, by which time the proportion of pure electric models will reach 50%, and the rest will be hybrid models; in 2030, it will become a pure electric luxury car company. As of 2020, Volvo has provided new energy models for its entire car series. Volvo's new pure electric C40 will be officially launched in July and will become one of the pioneers of the brand's efforts in the electrification market. Volvo XC40 pure electric version has been upgraded, bringing three configurations: four-wheel drive high-performance version PRO, long-range version and long-range PRO. The RECHARGE T8 plug-in hybrid models of Volvo's new XC60 and new S90 have also been upgraded and launched.
In addition, in terms of sales and channels, the original intention of establishing Volvo City Center Store is innovation centered on user needs. Volvo City Center Store is a long-term mall physical retail format defined by Volvo Cars. The city center store is positioned at a prime location in the city's core business district, bringing Volvo Cars closer to customers. Customers can not only experience the Nordic lifestyle concept, but also be exposed to Volvo's new pure electric vehicles.
The city center store benchmarks against new power supermarket stores; users can enjoy scheduled test drives, online orders, and unified prices; there is no need to compare prices and negotiate, and get a better full-process service experience; manufacturer pricing solves dealers’ price monopoly, and Users are closer; dealers have no inventory pressure, shift their functions to service providers, focus on improving services and customer satisfaction, and obtain high base salaries and high commissions. It is expected that by the end of 2022, Volvo Cars will add 25 city center stores and 1 directly operated store.
3.Behind the city center store is the consensus between Volvo and its dealer partners on the new business model. Under the direct sales model, dealers have no inventory pressure and the inventory belongs to the manufacturer. Dealers will be transformed into service providers, and the original sales rebates will be changed into service commissions. Under normal circumstances, the service commission of the direct sales model will not be lower than the previous sales rebate. Through the official direct sales model, Volvo will lead the upper-end brand experience center and city center stores to achieve precise traffic diversion, while the lower-end 4S stores, pop-up stores, and satellite stores will be led by traditional dealers to focus on converting more user groups. The direct sales model is a change made by Volvo on the channel side, but it does not mean abandoning the existing channel system.
In the face of change, it adopts a business model of "taking both top and bottom into consideration". Although the future car sales model is relatively uncertain, the brand has late-mover advantages and system advantages. The brand has reached a consensus with its dealer partners, and only through collaborative division of labor and in-depth cooperation can we win a win-win future. Volvo's "reliability" and "peace of mind" stem from the company's constant awareness of danger and its high focus on users. Only then can we launch policies during the epidemic, prepare for rainy days, maintain uninterrupted communication, uninterrupted cash flow, uninterrupted care, and uninterrupted sincerity.
4. Volvo Cars’ important actions (after-sales service) in the first half of the year provide users with considerate services throughout the entire life cycle of the car. The 12 dedicated service commitments address real needs based on actual pain points, bringing users from pre-sales to The after-sales full-cycle luxury service experience allows users to save more precious time for more important people. Take the most popular service promise among users - "free car pickup and delivery" as an example. In the first half of 2022, more than 100,000 car owners enjoyed this service, with a total driving mileage of more than 2.15 million kilometers. The number and mileage of enjoying the service The number increased by 88% compared to the same period in 2021. Since the launch of this service in July 2020, it has served nearly 520,000 car owners and driven more than 6.2 million kilometers.
There is also the "Parts Lifetime Warranty" service launched by Volvo for the first time in the industry. Since its launch, it has saved a total of 4,300 yuan for each car owner who has enjoyed this service; the "Exclusive Scooter" service has provided a total of 4,300 yuan to car owners. More than 180,000 days of scooter service; Volvo's "all-weather guard" service, which demonstrates Volvo's safety background, has accumulated 58,000 accidents. "User-centered", it provides many seemingly "very expensive" services, such as "reducing the zero-to-whole ratio". In the past two years, Volvo Cars has adjusted the prices of more than 123,000 parts, covering 1,000 parts. category, in which more than 11,000 parts have experienced an average decline of more than 50%. Volvo is serious about saving customers worry and money.
5. Volvo Cars’ new technology research and development actions and future prospects (safety & intelligence) This year, Volvo Cars officially announced at the CES International Consumer Electronics Show that it will launch an unsupervised highly automated driving function - Ride Pilot . NextVolvo models will continue to lead the safety benchmark for generations to come. It will be equipped with the most advanced sensors such as standard Luminar lidar, coupled with the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin chip, the most powerful computing platform for autonomous driving, and continuous software upgrades to provide users with a complete set of safe autonomous driving technology system solutions that combine software and hardware. Establish the highest safety standards for autonomous driving in the industry. In terms of hardware configuration, the new product comes standard with the advanced Iris lidar sensor produced by Luminar, 5 radars, 8 cameras and 16 ultrasonic sensors. The combination of multiple sensors improves the fault tolerance rate of the autonomous driving algorithm and improves the safety factor.
6. Volvo Cars promotes new progress in electrification and sustainability (electrification R&D & full value chain sustainability) Volvo’s next generation of pure electric vehicles (SPA2 pure electric platform) will bring pure electric vehicle design DNA, Volvo’s next The first generation of pure electric vehicles will inherit the essence of Scandinavian design that users are familiar with and love. After abandoning the internal combustion engine, the interior space of the car will become larger, bringing new possibilities for design. The freer design space will also bring a better car experience to consumers.
In the next ten years, the battery energy density of Volvo products is expected to exceed the 1,000 Wh/L (700Wh/kg) milestone and achieve an actual cruising range of 1,000 kilometers. At the same time, as battery technology, software and fast-charging technology continue to improve, charging time is expected to be reduced to nearly half by the middle of this decade.
In the future, Volvo’s battery products will be produced using 100% renewable energy. And the valuable materials in the battery will be fully reused to achieve remanufacturing and reuse of the battery as much as possible. In addition, Volvo is also studying energy storage and other solutions to realize the recycling and reuse of battery raw materials. Through the simplification of battery pack design and integration, future pure electric vehicles will improve the space problem of replacing oil with electricity, reduce vehicle weight and increase space.
Facing the challenges of the era of intelligence and electrification, Volvo insists on providing consumers with worry-free travel solutions in a personalized, sustainable and safe way. This is Volvo's answer to future cars.