When Volvo released its quarterly financial report, the owner of Polestar sitting opposite me sat up straight immediately.

He muttered, 'EX30 really cuts well', 'Swedish people just love environmental protection' and other awkward phrases.

But he holds a mobile phone co-branded with an extremely popular star and a green charm on his right hand, echoing the Rolex on his left hand. His whole appearance is as green as the surge of Volvo stocks in front of the screen.

Volvo, the luxury brand that once captured a large number of elites, has stood up after being down for half a year.

Last week, Volvo Cars released its Q3 2025 financial report, with sales of 160,514 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 7% and a month-on-month decrease of 11.6%.

The decline in sales has led to a decrease in revenue, with a year-on-year drop of 6% to 86.4 billion kronor. This has been a continuous decline for two quarters with a decline exceeding 5%, and it seems that the downward trend is still continuing.

However, the financial data on the other side looks quite good, with an adjusted operating profit of 6.4 billion Swedish kronor, a 10% year-on-year increase. The gross profit rate has improved from 17.7% in the previous quarter to 24.4%, and the EBIT

It is noteworthy that Volvo has managed to rebound in profits despite a decline in sales volume, with a soaring gross profit margin. This indicates that Volvo has either succeeded in cost control or earned more profits per car sold compared to others

It should be noted that at the second quarter of this year, there were many negative forecasts about Volvo, but now with this report card which is so different from analysts' predictions, its stock price has soared.

So what did Volvo do to achieve a comeback?

It seems that the "cost-cutting plan" in the second quarter is working now.

In April of this year, Volvo released a promising 2024 financial report with a record-breaking sales volume of 763,400 vehicles, and income growing to 400.2 billion Swedish kronor, exceeding the 400 billion mark for the first time.

But Volvo is just wearing a suit on the surface while its actual condition is just shorts below.

The reason is related to the radical strategy of the former CEO Luowenjin (Jim Rowan).

This guy made a cross-industry jump from Dyson, vigorously promoting the digitalization and electrification of car sales. He invested heavily in early-stage renewable energy companies such as StoreDot for fast charging and Northvolt for batteries.

However, he overlooked the fact that Volvo, as a multinational car company, needs to cater to the needs of different countries, and he did not anticipate the risks posed by geopolitics.

Ultimately, pulled between China and the US, Volvo found itself in a dilemma. Not only was its fuel market shrinking, but it also could not fully commit to the research and development of pure electric vehicles. Throughout 2024, its performance has b

By the first quarter of year 25, the net profit has dropped by 50% from 4.7 billion kroner in the same period last year to 1.9 billion. In the second quarter, due to the U.S. tariff increase, the cars are difficult to sell, leading to a high deprecia

Seeing the situation going from bad to worse, Volvo had to re-hire its former CEO Hakan Samuelsson.

The veteran was appointed at a critical moment and quickly brought out a cost-cutting plan, which simply means layoffs.

According to official news from Volvo, most of the 3,000 layoffs are office employees, and the layoffs will start at the Sweden headquarters with approximately 1,200 Swedish employees on the list and the remaining 1,800+ employees across various bran

It's not that we haven't seen this kind of drastic reform in the face of the company's operating crisis. The legendary CEO Ghosn, who saved Nissan, and Tang Weishi, who led Strantis out of trouble, have both used layoffs.

Moreover, this strategy has shown quick results. From the third-quarter financial report, after the layoffs, sales expenses were reduced by 1.43 billion kronor, administrative expenses decreased by 920 million kronor, and compensation and benefits ex

The surge in stock prices now is also a response from shareholders.

However, as we mentioned earlier with Nissan and Stellantis, while layoffs may provide a temporary sense of relief, cutting R&D investment is a risky move that could potentially damage the company's research capabilities and result in a cost reductio

So, from now on, it's time to really test Hakan and Volvo.

As we can see, the sales of Volvo are currently experiencing an uncontrollable decline, and its current models have their own issues respectively.

Although the V90 crossover has received positive feedback, its sales have not been as strong as expected. Even with its planned production ending soon, the sales have not shown a last-minute surge. Those who love it cannot afford it, and those who ca

As for the recently updated XC60, it's still the same in the bottle with no major innovation, and its sales can only be said to have increased slightly year-on-year.

The highly anticipated EX90, which had been postponed since 2023, finally resolved supply chain issues this year, but the future remains uncertain due to the ongoing China-US tariff dispute.

If Volvo doesn't come out with something new soon, its more than 40,000 employees won't be able to sustain the cuts for long.

At the financial report conference, they also recognized this point. From the current information, Volvo plans to reverse the situation by combining the research and development results obtained from its investment in the past few years with strength

Observing Volvo's research and development investment curve, they have developed the SPA3 platform, self-developed motors, two new factories, CTB and large-scale die-casting in recent years, and new models are coming one after another.

They will further collaborate with Geely to reduce material costs through joint purchasing and develop new models in the Chinese market.

It is obvious that the XC70 released at the end of September is designed for this purpose.

Upon seeing this car, the brother with the neck felt that Volvo has finally made sense.

The appearance and interior design don't reveal much. After all, the XC70 is a global model, so it has to cater to the Nordic aesthetic of minimalism.

However, in terms of configuration, it is fully aligned with the new forces, with all the necessary features provided, such as electric seats, 360° panoramic images, pure electric endurance of over 100 kilometers, and L2+ driving assistance.

These configurations are improved, and they are uniquely Chinese like Audi E5 Sportback, Nissan N7, and Toyota BZ3X.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with this. The unique aesthetic of the established car companies, coupled with richer configurations, is undoubtedly a good thing for us consumers.

@Yuan Qicong

However, the cooperation between Volvo and Geely is different from that of Audi and Nissan who fine-tune their platforms. In terms of powertrains, Volvo has put some efforts in brainpower work.

Just like the 3-speed DHT in XC70, it uses P1 + P2 + P4 instead of the P1 + P3 + P4 motor scheme found in its sibling model, the Lynk & Co 08 EM-P.

The main reason for doing this is for safety reasons.

The 'P' here stands for 'position' in English, representing the position of the motor in the powertrain.

Replace P3 with P2 to create space at the position before the output shaft at the rear of the gearbox, providing more buffer space during vehicle collisions.

Engines also have their own lineage. When Volvo left Ford, it formed a joint venture with Geely to establish Jili Guangwan Technology to begin developing locally produced engines.

Volvo's Drive-E has been modified to hybrid, resulting in the BHE15.

Later on, Dihao and Lynk & Co. both used this engine, and the current engine model for the XC70 is BHE15-BFZ.

To put it this way, XC70 is the "Emperor L HiP 2022 model 1.5TD-DHT Pro Super Clean" Pro Max.

If Volvo requires, installing the same high-power engine can enable it to run at over 200 km/h on unlimited highways.

So, with Volvo and Geely teaming up, are people buying into this?

The specific sales figures are not yet available, but according to blogger Sun Shaojun's statistics, XC70 has received large orders for 10-12 units per store, with a small sales volume of several thousand, which can be considered as good performance.

As for attracting many M7 and ideal L7 customers, it also shows that we still have to put down the airs of luxury brands. The competition is so fierce now that only when the competitiveness of the model becomes more important can we talk about brand

We can't just rely on our past achievements as we used to, or we'll become forgotten like before.

EX60 will be unveiled in January next year, and we can also see if Volvo can give us greater surprises.

After all, the price of automotive power batteries is falling. If EX60 can use the domestic supply chain to reduce costs, it will be exciting to see.

What if we modify ES90 and revive V90 in the new energy era?

Photo Source and Credit:

Emperor Auto challenges Germany! Accelerating to 250km/h... by ExtremeGear

XC70: The most intuitive experience with the most delicate design behind it, ToTo Wenhan

It is the safest player in its class! 【Volvo XC70】, Yuan Qicong

Sweden’s Volvo Cars to cut 3,000 jobs as part of major cost-cutting drive , CNBC

Håkan Samuelsson: outgoing Volvo boss and electric car pioneer, The Guardian

www.volvocars.com

This article comes from the Weixin Official Accounts "Bad Review X.PIN"