Geely's Volvo Cars boosted first quarter 2018 operating profit 3.6% year on year to MSEK3,616m.
Sales revenue rose 18.9% to MSEK56,813m but net profit slipped 1.8% to MSEK2,558m.
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The EBIT margin also fell, to 6.4% from 7.3%.
Worldwide, retail sales rose 14.1% to 147,407 cars, spurred by the XC40 crossover launched in February.
"Demand for the XC40 is ahead of expectations with 6,500 cars already sold and over 24,000 orders in pipeline," said CEO Hakan Samuelsson in the quartely results report.
Outlook
Volvo expects the worldwide passenger car market to grow and the premium segment to continue to develop "positively" accompanied by continued growth in revenue and retail sales due to the recently fully updated model lines, plus incremental sales of the XC40 taking the automaker into a new segment.
It "expects profits to remain strong based on an improved model mix following the completion of the roll out of SPA [Small Product Architecture platform] cars and the introduction of the XC40".
But there was caution: "Profit is expected to be partly impacted by increased expenses related to continued focus on marketing, R&D and digitalisation."
