Volvo rallies dealers on EVs, CPO participation

Volvo Car USA's make meeting was a celebratory one.

The Swedish automaker sold more vehicles in the U.S. last year than it has in a dozen years, with deliveries up 10 percent.

"It was an extraordinary good year, with growth 12 months in a row," CEO Anders Gustafsson told Automotive News after the meeting. "Also, we reached [sales of] over 100,000 cars."

At the meeting, held the day before Volvo's annual dealer meeting, Gustafsson gave dealers an overview of where Volvo is headed from a brand and product perspective, according to some attendees. Gustafsson assured dealers he has a plan to tackle the four horsemen of the auto industry apocalypse: connectivity, electrification, mobility and autonomy.

Electrification will put pressure on margins, he said. Even so, the CEO admitted to not having a crystal ball.

"I don't know the reaction from consumers; I don't know the amount of PHEVs and BEVs we are going to be able to sell," Gustafsson said of plug-in hybrid and battery-electric vehicles. "But, I need my dealers to be believers. They need to trust us that we have a solution that can help them to make more money and also take care of our customers in the right way."

Gustafsson rallied the assembled dealers to participate in Volvo's Certified Pre-Owned program. He said he would like more of the brand's 282 U.S. dealers to be involved

"Dealers need to be involved in used cars. Otherwise, we will never reach our target of 3 percent of sales," Gustafsson said.

Volvo is attempting to make the program simpler on the dealer-acquisition side and is putting incentives on the finance side, Volvo Retail Advisory Board Chairman Ernie Norcross said.

"We have a big lease portfolio coming back in 2020," he said. "Our goal is to keep all those vehicles in the Volvo network."