Volvo Cars may have been down seven percent, but the company beat profit expectations.
Volvo’s operating income was $683.5 million, a year-over-year improvement.
Internal job cuts and sales of the XC60 were credited.
From Ward’s Auto:
“In a tough market we delivered a solid third-quarter result and our cost and cash actions are delivering,” Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo’s chief executive said in a company statement.
“We managed to offset the squeeze on pricing in a shrinking market in one area and that’s with our best-seller the XC60, whose upgrade has helped us,” he told investors.
The company shed 3,000 jobs back in May, and it appears the company spent less than it anticipated. Again, from Ward’s Auto.
Volvo’s CFO, Fredrik Hansson, said the company did not have to spend the money it anticipated and budgeted for its turnaround strategy “to do the headcount reductions that we planned and that we have now executed.” “We don’t foresee any major layoffs going forward either,” he added.
Sales of the XC60 went to 20,496 from 18,096 at the same time. Those numbers compare September 2025 to where the automaker was in September 2024.
The job cuts might stall future layoffs — and while Volvo wants to be all-in on EVs, it knows it still must, for the time being, produce some ICE and hybrid vehicles until EV demand improves.
Once final time from Ward’s:
“To avoid this… we have to be very restrictive when somebody leaves the company and look to a replacement within the company as a first priority,” Samuelsson said. “That will give a yearly reduction in headcount… to have a leaner and a better performing organization and avoiding coming into the same situation again with layoffs,” he added.
The company is also hoping to replicate the sales success of its XC60 with the launch of its all-electric sibling, the EX60 planned for the beginning of 2026.
“We are now ramping up sales of our EV cars and are fully on track towards the very important January launch of the EX60 in the largest and most popular electric segment,” said Samuelsson.
However, while he said the company will be able to offer an EV option across its vehicle range by 2030, it will not be ditching ICE/hybrid technology completely.
“We need to become fully electric by 2030 but we cannot force our customer to be that so we have to provide bridge solutions, so-called PHEVs,” Samuelsson said during the investors call.
It’s nice to see the small automaker seeming to get a handle on its struggles.
