Volvo is on a roll with another round of sky-high EV sales

In a wake of what feels like gloomy news for the EV economy, Volvo has pulled out yet another round of impressive EV sales numbers, especially coming from a legacy automaker. Volvo reports that its fully electric car sales jumped by 29% in October globally compared to last year, accounting for 18% of all of its cars sold in the month.

On the flip part, and a signal toward its all-electric future, plug-in hybrids saw a slight decline of 8%, with 10,864 units sold during the same period.

In the US, Volvo sold 1,240 fully electric vehicles last month, with a 49% increase from October 2022. Plug-in hybrids account for 1,801 units, with a 6% increase from last year. 

The biggest gains in overall units sold were in Europe, with 7,009 EVs and 6,654 plug-in hybrids sold last month, compared to 6,172 EVs and 8,115 plug-ins in October last year. Comparing January-October 2023 to that same time frame last year, Volvo reports a 123% jump in fully electric vehicles in Europe. Sales in China report the lowest number of electric vehicles, with 237 EVs and 929 plug-in hybrids.

In October, Volvo’s top seller was its XC60 crossover hybrid, which sold 20,212 units worldwide, followed by the XC40 with 17,022 cars. The XC90 accounts for 7,961 cars.

Back in March 2021, Volvo was one of the first legacy automakers to commit to an all-electric future by 2030, and has been working to phase out ICE and hybrid vehicles, with solid results. In September, the automaker also reported all-electric sales rising by double digits in every region, with EV sales increasing 631% in the US.

Year-to-date, Volvo has sold 569,019 vehicles total – and those numbers are expected to rise as the company rolls out the EX30 crossover. The new entry-level EV is poised to be a major bestseller with its affordable pricing – it is expected to start at €36,590 in Europe and $34,950 in the US. The larger of its two models comes with an 69 kWh battery and a 268 horsepower rear-mounted electric motor, and an EPA-estimated range of 275 miles.