Volvo’s move toward full electrification is being rewarded.

The newest battery-powered models in its lineup — the EX30, EX90 and EM90 — added 100,768 additional sales to the automaker’s total volume in 2024.

When sales of the EX40 and C40 are added, Volvo’s EV sales reached 175,194 last year, an increase of 54 percent compared with 2023.

Most of those sales — 98,065 — came from the EX30 small SUV, which finished its first full year on the market as Volvo’s fourth-best-seller globally. The XC60 midsize SUV was Volvo’s best-seller, with a volume of 230,853.

The EV surge increased Volvo’s full-year global sales 8 percent to 763,389, a record for the Geely-owned automaker. It is the eighth time since 2014 that Volvo has broken its global sales record (see table, below).

With the record, CEO Jim Rowan kept a promise made last February.

The automaker did, however, have to adjust its growth target downward to less than 10 percent from its original goal of more than 15 percent.

That means Volvo fell short of an elusive milestone, which is pushing global sales above the 800,000 threshold for the first time.

Volvo had previously targeted reaching 800,000 sales by 2020, but the pandemic, chip shortage and supply chain crisis upended those plans.

Volvo stands to make a big financial gain from its EV shift

Although Volvo announced last September that it no longer aims to be an EV-only brand by 2030, it still expects battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids to account for at least 90 percent of its sales by then.

That commitment to vehicles with a plug will earn Volvo an undisclosed sum of money from Suzuki as the Japanese automaker will purchase CO2 credits from Volvo to avoid CO2 fines from the EU in 2024.

Volvo could be in line for as much as €300 million in CO2 credit compensation this year from a pooling agreement with Mercedes-Benz, UBS Group analysts predicted.

Volvo this year will fill a hole in its lineup of full-electric vehicles by introducing its first battery-powered sedan. The ES90 is set to make its debut in March. It will be built at the Swedish automaker’s factory in Torslanda, near Gothenburg.