VOLVO 2 - A great set of results for Volvo, with increased sales, income and a huge jump in profits.

Volvo Car Group, the premium car maker, trebled its operating profit for 2015 to SEK6.620bn compared with SEK2.128bn for the same period in 2014. Revenue for the year was SEK164,043m, up from SEK137,590m in 2014.

The company also reported an all-time sales record of 503,127 cars in 2015, the first time it has sold more than half a million cars in its 89-year history, boosted by the introduction of its new 90 series cars and strong sales of existing models.

“I am pleased to report that 2015 was a year of record sales and trebled profits,” said Håkan Samuelsson, President and Chief Executive of Volvo Cars. “Now, with a successful 2015 behind us, Volvo Cars will enter the next phase of its global transformation. Once completed, Volvo will be a truly global premium car company."

Volvo is implementing a SEK75bn transformation programme as part of its long-term strategic ambition to establish itself as a global premium car maker. Driven by the complete renewal of its product range, Volvo is aiming to almost double sales to around 800,000 cars a year in the medium term.

In 2015, the company made significant progress in achieving this goal.

Production of the new XC90 started and the end-of-year order intake of more than 88,000 XC90s far surpassed initial targets for the model. The start of production also meant the introduction of a third shift at the Torslanda plant in Sweden and more than 1,500 new manufacturing jobs.

In the first half of the year, Volvo also incorporated its three joint-venture operations in China, thereby taking control of the operations and providing a more accurate financial and operational picture of the company.

In the second half of the year, construction started on Volvo’s new manufacturing facility in South Carolina in the United States. The facility represents an investment of around USD500m and will be operational as of 2018. The new plant means Volvo will be able to build and sell cars in each of its three core regions, highlighting its global aspirations.

In December, Volvo revealed its new S90 premium saloon to wide acclaim at an event in Gothenburg. The S90 is the second new model on Volvo’s modular Scalable Product Architecture (SPA).

Full results for the full year 2015 will be revealed today at 10:00 CET during a press conference at the Volvo Showroom in Kungsträdgården, Stockholm.

Nissan is expecting the next generation Micra to be more successful than the current version.

Nissan’s new Micra will have higher sales than the current car thanks to its larger size and wider range of engines, the brand’s Europe chief, Paul Willcox, said.

The next Micra will fit its segment better than the current car, Willcox told Automotive News Europe. “The car will be positioned right in the heartland. We will sell more than current Micra,” he said at a press event at Nissan’s factory here.

Willcox wasn’t specific about the wider engine line-up. The current Micra is available in Europe with two versions of a 1.2-liter gasoline engine.

Willcox said he expects European sales of hatchbacks such as the Micra to remain strong despite the growing popularity of small crossover/SUVs.

The new-generation Micra will go on sale later this year. It will be built for European markets at alliance partner Renault’s factory in Flins, France, instead of in Chennai, India. Renault is adding annual capacity of 82,000 units for the Micra at the plant, which also builds the Renault Clio and Zoe subcompacts.

Nissan’s head of performance, Trevor Mann, said the Micra will be built on a hybrid platform including some elements of Renault-Nissan alliance’s new CMF-A small-car platform. The first car to use the platform in its entirety will be the next Nissan Juke, which will go into production in 2018 in Sunderland.

The Micra is Nissan’s third best-selling car in Europe after the Qashqai and Juke.

Sales of the Micra rose 5 percent to 61,431 in Europe in the first 11 months of 2015, according to market researchers JATO Dynamics. Qashqai sales for the same period were 214,833, up 26 percent. Juke sales increased 5 percent to 94,706.

Nick Gibbs

REPORT HERE

Abarth has high hopes, for a WRC return, higher sales, more dealers, more models and a brighter future.

Fiat's Abarth unit, which is on track to boost sales by 50 percent this year, plans to more than double its global dealership network as it expands its lineup, said Paolo Gagliardo, who heads the performance subbrand.

Abarth is on course to increase global sales to about 10,000 cars this year, Gagliardo told journalists here early this month, despite only offering tuned versions of the Fiat 500.

Next year Abarth will add a new model, Gagliardo said without being specific.

Abarth's head of marketing, Fabrizio Simoni, told Automotive News Europe the brand wants to offer versions of Fiat's 500X subcompact SUV and the new Fiat 124 Spider, but he declined to say when the models would launch.

'Keep growing'

“We want to keep growing and stabilize at a certain level,” Gagliardo said, without giving an estimate of what that level could be. He said the brand now has 300 Abarth sales points within existing Fiat dealerships and will expand that to 750, without giving a timeframe.

He said that Abarth sales were worth a lot both to dealerships and to parent company Fiat Chrysler. 

“It's a huge business opportunity. Our cars are premium-priced,” he said, adding that Abarth variants of the Fiat 500 start at 18,000 euros ($19,000) compared with a the 13,600 starting price for a base 500 variant in Italy. The numbers only grow from there. 

“You find new Abarths selling for up to 40,000 euro even 50,000 euros,” said Gagliardo, who declined to reveal Abarth's average profit margin.

Rally return

A mock-up of the 124 Abarth roadster was shown on the sidelines of the event to a select group. The car is significant because a source at the event said Fiat would use a high-performance variant of the 124 to make its return to the World Rally Championship in a planned new category for rear-wheel-drive sports cars. Fiat's last success in the WRC came in the late '70s and early '80s with the 131 Abarth.

The source had no technical details on the racecar but said the Abarth version of the 124 that will be sold in dealerships will use higher-power versions of the 140-hp 1.4-liter turbocharged gasoline engine planned for the base Fiat 124, which goes on sale in Europe in next May.

Top markets

Abarth's biggest markets are the UK and Italy, which currently tie for first place in sales, Gagliardo said. The UK arm of Abarth plans to increase its dealerships to 105 by the end of next year from 68 now, a spokesman said. The third-biggest market is Japan, where the 124 Abarth will be built alongside the 124 Spider, the source said. Both Fiats are variants of the new-generation Mazda MX-5.

Abarth's aspirations

• Increase global sales points to 750 from 300
• Increase lineup to 3 from 1
• Increase sales 50% to 10,000
• Return Fiat to the World Rally Championship

Nick Gibbs

REPORT HERE