Sweden May 2016: Volvo V90 lands in record-breaking market

The imposing Volvo V90 has landed in its home market.

* See the Top 45 All-brands and Top 255 All-models by clicking on the title *

Now updated with Volvo Sweden statement about S90 and V90 sales.

May new car sales in Sweden are up a very satisfying 17% year-on-year to 34.475 units, the strongest May tally ever recorded in the country and the 29th consecutive month of year-on-year gains, helping propel the year-to-date total to an all-time high 152.184 units after five months, up 11.5% on the same period in 2015 which also was a record-breaking year. Volvo improves slightly slower than the market at +15% to hold 19% share vs. 19.5% so far in 2016, it distances Volkswagen (+25%), Kia (+29%), Toyota (+22%) and BMW (+28%). Mercedes (+36%), Fiat (+52%), Peugeot (+47%), Mazda (+67%), Jeep (+56%), Jaguar (+214%), Ferrari (+140%) and Bentley (+133%) also impress with their year-on-year gains. Model-wise, this month we see the much-anticipated arrival of the Volvo V90, the replacement for the Volvo V70, the best-selling nameplate in Sweden for the past 19 years in a row.

Volvo V90

The previous time a V90 was on sale in Sweden, it was so for a very short period of time: between 1996 and 1998. Along with the V90 comes the its sedan variant the S90, bound to be less successful in Sweden, an avid consumer of homegrown station wagons. This month, Volvo has smartly combined volumes of the S/V90 with the V70 it replaces in order to see the transition through without losing the Sweden #1 spot, resulting in a 23% year-on-year improvement to 2.684 units vs. +10% and 12.311 year-to-date. However Volvo Sweden told us that the May sales figure can be regarded as “mostly XC70 and V70 and very, very few S90 and V90 as [Volvo] has not delivered any customer sold S90 and V90 yet. There are [currently] only a few test vehicles and demo cars running om the Swedish roads.” Given the S90 starts at the equivalent of US$44.600, the V90 at $45.900, it will be interesting to see whether the S/V90 family can smoothly replace the V70 at the helm of the Swedish market.

Previous month: Sweden April 2016: Volvo above 20% share in record pace market

One year ago: Sweden May 2015: New Volvo XC90 jumps into Top 30

Full May 2016 Top 45 All-brands and Top 255 All-models below.