A few days ago, at a Financial Times conference the boss of Volvo spoke about buyer demand what that means for Volvo at the moment and when lockdown ends. Håkan Samuelsson said that current demand is down at the moment in Europe, but it has increased slightly over in China.

Samuelsson also said it would be “naive” to expect new car buyers to come back to car dealers and go and buy brand new petrol and diesel combustion cars. He expects the electrification transition to come here faster.

“Electrification will go faster. It’d be good to promote new technology – good for governments to support electric vehicles, which are more expensive in the first years. Demand in Europe is around 30% what it is normally, but demand in China is 20% above where it was before the virus. If those signals are right, they speak for a good recovery,” he said. “I really hope this is the case, and anything else will be a disaster for the business.”

Håkan Samuelsson – Volvo CEO

Samuelsson also said that Volvo is currently operating on a three-day week at the moment, due to the lack of demand for new cars.