Volvo Car Corp has scaled back expectations for its 2005 car sales given the tough US market, but the Ford unit still sees sales growth from 456,000 units in 2004, its CEO told Reuters.
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“We aim to sell more than the 456,000 cars we sold last year,” Volvo Cars chief executive Hans-Olov Olsson told the news agency, adding: “But I don’t think it will be that many more than last year.”
“I think the outlook in the US is getting tougher and tougher,” Olsson said. “After the first quarter we felt that it (a 5% rise) was reasonable, but since then things have changed. We have got an unsound market in the US today.”
Reuters said US sales of new Volvo cars dropped 2.7% in January to the end of May to 53,791 units. European sales rose 3.6% to 115,016 units, despite a 7.2% fall in May as a result of weaker development for the brand in Germany, Europe’s biggest car market, as it cleared out inventories.
Olsson reportedly said the incentives war had started to move to the German market.
“Some of the activities in the U.S. have spread to Germany and domestic manufacturers are fiercely guarding their market shares,” Olsson told Reuters.
