Volvo Cars president and chief executive Håkan Samuelsson said his company’s sales in China in 2015 would grow faster than the overall market for premium cars.

His bullish comments came amid concerns about a broader slowdown in the world’s largest passenger car market.

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The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has said it expects passenger vehicle sales to rise 8% to 21.3m vehicles in 2015, compared with 9.9% growth in 2014.

Samuelsson said he expects growth in the overall market for passenger cars in China in 2015 to slow to between 5% and 7% with the premium sector staying reasonably buoyant with growth of between 5% and 10%. Volvo’s growth will outpace the overall premium sector, he said.

“It is going to be tougher, there’s no doubt about that. But there is still solid growth to be had, especially in the premium sector,” said Samuelsson.

China was Sweden’s largest individual market in 2014, with sales of 81,000 cars, 17.4% of total retail sales.

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Its sales in China have been driven primarily by the XC60 premium crossover as well as the S60L, a long wheel base version of the S60 sedan developed specially for the market.

Sales are expected to receive a boost in future from the launch of the redesigned XC90 seven seat SUV which is available for purchase online now and will reach dealers in autumn.