Volvo Cars reported Thursday higher profit than expected in the third quarter, sending its stock soaring over 30 percent even as sales fell amid “tough” competition and declining demand for premium electric cars.
Revenue fell to 86.4 billion kronor ($9.2 billion) in the third quarter from 92.8 billion kronor a year earlier.
Volvo said the decrease was mainly a result of “lower wholesale volume” and currency effects resulting from a stronger krona.
“During the third quarter of 2025, our performance continued to be under pressure due to a shrinking total premium market and tough competition, especially in the fully electric segment,” chief executive Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement.
Still, operating profit rose 11 percent to 6.4 billion kronor and net profit rose slightly to 4.5 billion kronor from 4.4 billion kronor.
Shares in Volvo Cars soared 33 percent in midday trading in Stockholm.
Hampus Engellau, an analyst at Sweden’s Handelsbanken, said that the report beat expectations by a wide margin.
“At the same time, there have been speculations in the market that the result would be worse than expected,” Engellau said.
He added that the earnings showed that while Volvo had “a very tough quarter sales-wise” it had managed to “to lower costs at a higher rate”.
Volvo Cars, majority owned by China’s Geely, announced in April an 18-billion-kronor cost-cutting plan as it navigates a car market buffeted by US tariffs and a costly switch to electric vehicles.
In May, it said the plan would include around 3,000 job cuts worldwide.
“In the short term, the market is expected to be increasingly challenging, as macroeconomic challenges will remain,” Samuelsson said.
“However, we saw a reversal in our own sales trends in September and we will continue to see positive effects from our cost and cash programme.”
