At 10:55 a.m., Volvo Cars shares plunged 8 percent on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
Volvo Cars reported an operating profit of SEK 0.8 billion for the second quarter. In the corresponding quarter last year, the company made a loss of SEK 10 billion.
The result was worse than expected. The market's expectations were for an operating profit of SEK 1.3 billion.
Investing in China
Revenue fell to SEK 77.7 billion, compared with SEK 93.5 billion a year earlier.
It is mainly due to external factors in the China market, says Samuelsson.
Are you going to continue investing in China?
Yes, we have been very clear about that. Volvo will remain and will remain a global brand. But it will not work by doing what we have done so far, selling global cars. We need to have a much more regionalised production programme, and I am glad that we have been talking about it for a long time.
Are you going to adapt more to China?
Yes, absolutely. And then we have a unique opportunity to do that with Geely, which many of our competitors lack.
Volvo Cars, with Chinese Geely as its largest owner, was granted a permit by US authorities during the quarter to continue importing and selling connected cars in the US. By contrast, Polestar received a sales ban.
“Incredibly positive”
It's incredibly positive. The US is an important market. We're going to invest more money in Charleston, and that would have been impossible without this approval.
Legislation coming into effect next year could block connected vehicles from companies under Chinese control.
There is a new law that will ensure that information collected by cars stays in the US and Europe. Since we have a Chinese owner, we were asked how it will work at Volvo. And after demonstrating how it works, we got approval.
Do Americans trust you?
I don't know if it's reliable, but we've demonstrated it after many questions here and there. It's a very fact-based process and it was approved, so it's not an opinion.
Volvo Cars expects stronger sales in the second half of the year.
"We have strong electric car development in Europe, and now we are also launching a completely new car in the largest segment in that market. But in China we do not expect any improvement in the third or fourth quarter," says Samuelsson.
