VLVOF - Volvo Car AB (publ.) (VLVOF) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-04-24 11:55:24 ET
Volvo Car AB (publ.) (VLVOF)
Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call
April 24, 2024, 03:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Ron Banerjee - Head of Corporate Communications
Jim Rowan - President and Chief Executive
Johan Ekdahl - Chief Financial Officer
Bjorn Annwall - Chief Commercial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Harry Martin - Bernstein
Erik Golgrang - SEB
Pushkar Tendolkar - HSBC
Hampus Engellau - Handelsbanken
Sian Keegan - Goldman Sachs
Presentation
Ron Banerjee
Well, that's right. Multiple awards rolling in and we're ramping up the EX30 around the world. We're going to speak a lot more about the car during this earnings call. Good morning, and a warm welcome to the presentation of Volvo Cars First Quarter Financial Results. My name is Ron, and joining me this morning is our President and Chief Executive, Jim Rowan, who joins us from our Design Studio in Shanghai. In fact, Jim is in China this week for the launch of the EX30 during the Beijing Auto Show. In the room with me is our Chief Financial Officer, Johan Ekdahl, and our Chief Commercial Officer, Bjorn Annwall. At the top, Jim, Johan and Bjorn will walk us through our performance during the first quarter and thereafter we'll throw it open for a question-and-answer round.
You can either participate using the chat windows that you should be able to see at the bottom of your screen, or you can simply use the phone lines. I'll come back with more information on how you can participate closer to the Q&A session.
But for now, I leave the word to you, Jim.
Jim Rowan
Thanks, Ron.
Delighted to be with everyone today and good morning. We started the year strong, strong business performance with continued momentum to lay solid foundations, double-digit retail sales growth during the quarter, with the bulk of that growth coming in the back end of Q1 with March setting new monthly sales record of over 25% year-on-year growth. Solid core EBIT margins is 7.2% versus 6.6% in Q1 last year.
We improved the gross margins on fully electric cars, which came in at 16% versus 7% in Q1 2023, and the share of EVs and PHEVs came in at 41% with EVs accounting for 21% of that. And the XC60 plug-in hybrid continues to be the most sold PHEV in Europe. We were the third-largest EV brand in Europe.
This is mainly on the back of the EX40 and the EC40 and of course the new EX30. And in fact the EX30 was the third highest-selling EV in March, having only started its retail journey. We started production and customer deliveries of the fully electric MPV, our new EM90 in China.
Free cash flow stood at minus SEK12 billion, which is in line with our internal plans. This is affected by the EX30 inventories as we build up production for that car and inventory for our customers ahead. We secured shareholding support to distribute our 62.7% of our ownership in Polestar and we continued to remain focused on cost and ensure robust capital allocation....
Volvo Car AB (publ.) (VLVOF) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript