Volvo Sales Up With New S60 and XC60

Under its new Chinese ownership, Volvo has a game plan, U.S. sales are rising and it can afford to run TV commercials, says John Maloney, the new CEO of Volvo Cars U.S. Maloney, 50, expects Volvo’s U.S. sales this year to be “north of 65,000” units, about 25 percent above last year’s 53,948. Next year he expects total U.S. light-vehicle sales to rise to 13.5 million units and sees Volvo rising 8 to 10 percent despite no new products other than a mildly freshened XC90 crossover in January.
Volvo’s U.S. sales could have grown more in 2011, but supplies of the 3-year-old XC60 mid-sized crossover and the redesigned S60 sedan were tight throughout the year, Maloney said. Volvo is increasing production in Sweden to improve supply in the first quarter of 2012, he said. The biggest sales gains in 2011 came from the redesigned S60 sedan launched in late 2010, said Maloney. Through November, S60 sales were up about 18,000 units over the prior year to 19,331.