In December last year, Volvo Car Netherlands received the prestigious Swedish Achievement Award 2024. This award underlined the Swedish brand’s stellar performance in what was a historic year. In 2024, Volvo achieved 30,995 registrations in the Netherlands, a growth of 89.3% compared to last year. This performance reflected an 8.1% market share, up from 4.4% in 2023. With this new sales record, Volvo ended the year as the number-two brand in the Netherlands—the old sales record dates back to 1986, with 29,016 registered Volvo cars then.
In a dynamic market heavily influenced by geopolitical developments, Volvo sold 64% all-electric vehicles in 2024. As a result, Volvo climbed on the EV sales list from fifth position last year to second place with an EV market share of 15%. By 2030, Volvo aims for 90-100% of global sales to consist of electrified – PHEV and BEV – models. With as many as 92% of registrations being plug-in hybrid or full electric, Volvo in the Netherlands is already meeting the target.
For Volvo, 2024 was the year of the launch of the EX90 and, above all, the new Volvo EX30. The compact full-electric SUV proved a great success in its first full year, with 10,800 registrations and a listing as the number two EV and the overall number three model in the Netherlands. But the Volvo EX40 and EC40 also remained popular among both business and private drivers last year. Volvo sold 6,745 EX40/XC40, of which 4,873 registrations were for the all-electric EX40. The EX40 finished number five EV and eighth in the overall sales list.
The 2024 performance underlines Volvo’s leadership in electrification and sustainability. Volvo ended the year with no fewer than four models in the top 25 best-selling cars in the Netherlands: EX30(3), EX40(5), XC60(23) and V60(24). This further highlighted the appeal of the BEV and PHEV models and confidence in the brand.
at Volvo Car Netherlands
Volvo in the Netherlands
Volvo in the Netherlands could best be described as a combination of a highly professional Volvo retailer network and a strong team within the national sales company, making excellent use of a versatile, largely electrified model range.
From a historical point of view, the Netherlands is a real Volvo country with a strong brand position. It is perceived as a premium brand. Volvo is highly ranked when it comes to values such as brand awareness, willingness to pay and brand consideration.
In the Netherlands, Volvo is one of the fastest transformers and growing premium brands. Team Volvo Car Netherlands is growing their business while they are transforming from a pure wholesale model into an omnichannel approach. This approach is aimed at offering a seamless customer journey, both online and offline. So, the Volvo organization has to keep its promise to the customers and continue to manage their expectations. This means great effort on all customer touchpoints by the national sales company, customer care team and Volvo retailers.
Volvo Cars has been active in electrification since 2014 and is doing very well in the Netherlands. Nine out of ten cars in the Netherlands is a car with a cord – plug-in hybrid or pure electric. This makes Volvo the number one ‘cord brand’ and endorses the electrification strategy in the Netherlands. Volvo feels confident that both the fully electric cars and the long-range plug-in hybrids of the 60 and 90 series will further accelerate the sales pace of the electrification journey.
Director of Consumer Experience & Marketing Operations at Volvo Cars Netherlands
Volvo Car Netherlands Follows Volvo Cars’ Sustainability Strategy
The Volvo brand stands for Freedom to Move, in a safe, personal and sustainable way. In 2022, following Volvo Cars’ sustainability strategy, the building and the car park of Volvo Car Nederland in Beesd have undergone a major sustainability update with the installation of over 5,000 solar panels and over 100 new charging points for the fleet. The company’s ultimate goal is to operate climate-neutral by fully meeting its own energy needs with solar panels.
The large-scale installation of solar panels at Volvo Car Netherlands was carried out by SolarComfort with as many as 5,392 solar panels on all suitable roof surfaces with a total capacity of 1.79 MW. The installation was realized in two phases. Prior to installation, all panels were extensively tested for quality and possible hairline cracks to guarantee optimal operation and prevent premature degradation of performance and efficiency.
In the second phase, the car park was equipped with so-called Solar Carports. These specially designed carports for Volvo create an additional surface area that is maximized for installing solar panels. Each carport is also equipped with a charging point so that the solar energy generated can be used directly to charge an electric car’s battery. The new charging points in the car park, 113 in total, were recently completed by supplier and partner Joulz. To top it all off, the paving has also been refurbished and resurfaced.
The total output of the solar panels at Volvo Car Netherlands is as much as 1.6 GWh per year. To illustrate, this is enough to charge the battery of an all-electric Volvo XC40 Recharge 22,857 times, allowing 9.7 million emission-free kilometres to be travelled.
With the commissioning of the large amount of solar panels, Volvo Car Netherlands is making a clear statement regarding corporate social responsibility, while seamlessly aligning with Volvo’s sustainability vision. In this context, the Dutch organization stopped printing brochures and price lists and using ‘single-use’ plastic in 2019.
Spokesperson at Volvo Car Netherlands
Volvo Car Netherlands took the next step towards becoming a sustainable organization in 2023 with Approved Sustainable Plus certification. The Institute for Approved Sustainability assessed Volvo’s policy on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through the CSR questionnaire and an audit. This looks at the sustainability of operations, communication, finance, procurement, staff and services. With Plus, an additional Waste & Energy module was added. This mapped Volvo’s waste streams and energy consumption and provided advice on how to make savings in this area.
Van Polanen Petel: “Erkend Duurzaam is an initiative of the Institute for Sustainable Mobility, which was founded in 2008 by Bovag, RAI Association and Stiba. All Volvo retailers were already awarded the Approved Sustainable label in 2010. That we are now also the first importer in the Netherlands to receive the label is an important token of recognition that Volvo also takes its social responsibility in the Netherlands. With this certification, Volvo Car Netherlands is following in the footsteps of the Dutch Volvo retailers who already hold various Erkend Duurzaam certifications. For example, 44 retailers hold the basic certification, 26 can be qualified as Approved Sustainability Plus, and 12 retailers have the Approved Sustainability Premium designation.”
Albert-Jan Boll, Director of Business & Retailer Development: “Sustainability is one of Volvo’s three core values. In 2009, a Volvo retailer became the first in the Netherlands to receive the approved sustainability certificate, Erkend Duurzaam Plus. Since then, the entire Volvo dealer organization has been continuously awarded Erkend Duurzaam Plus. We are therefore proud that, as an importer, we ourselves are now also Erkend Duurzaam Plus-certified”.
Volvo Car Netherlands is particularly positively assessed in the area of waste, separation, prevention, storage and disposal. The certification comes more than a year after Volvo Car Netherlands had its premises and car park in Beesd undergone a major sustainability upgrade with the installation of more than 5,000 solar panels and over 100 new charging points for the fleet. This, too, contributes to positive scores. The total output of the solar panels at Volvo Car Netherlands is as much as 1.6 GWh per year. This is enough to charge the battery of an all-electric Volvo XC40 22,857 times, allowing 9.7 million emission-free kilometres to be covered.
With this, the company is making a clear statement regarding corporate social responsibility, which fits perfectly with Volvo’s sustainability vision. In this context, the Dutch organization has already stopped printing brochures and price lists and using ‘single-use’ plastic in 2019.
Volvo Family Bond: Supporting Equal Parenthood
Since 1 April 2021, Volvo Cars is giving its more than 40,000 employees around the world, in all plants and offices, the right to paid parental leave. The policy follows a parental leave pilot introduced in the EMEA region in 2019.
The ‘Family Bond’ policy gives employees with at least one year of permanent employment 24 weeks of leave at 80% of their salary as standard. The policy applies to both male and female employees and the leave can be taken at any time within the first three years of parenthood.
With this, Volvo wants to create a culture that supports equal parenthood. When parents are supported to balance work and family, it helps close the gender gap and allows everyone to focus on their careers. Volvo has always been a family- and people-oriented company. With this parental leave policy, the Swedish brand is showcasing and living its values, which will further strengthen the brand.
The new global parental leave policy covers more than many of the world’s existing policies, and it targets all legally registered parents, including adoptive, foster and surrogate parents, as well as co-parenting same-sex couples.
Volvo Cars‘ global policy is inspired by national legislation in Sweden, Volvo Cars’ home market. Sweden is known globally for its parental leave schemes, which have brought tangible benefits to both parents and children over the past decades. The global policy follows a parental leave pilot introduced in the EMEA region in 2019. In this, 46 per cent of all applicants were fathers.
It is more than a new parental leave policy for our employees – it reflects Volvo’s corporate culture and values. Volvo wants to lead the way in this sector and set a new global standard for people. By allowing their employees to opt for paid parental leave, Volvo Cars reduce the gender gap and get a more diverse workforce, which drives performance and strengthens the company.
Patricia van Hazendonk, People Experience & Competence Director at Volvo Car Netherlands:
“The first years of parenthood are also the years when strong bonds are built between parents and children. Emotional bonds are important for both the development of the family and the child. This great initiative has been a pilot project within the EMEA region since 2019.
Family Bond was very positively received in the Netherlands by employees, the press and other people outside Volvo. Since the pilot in 2019, several employees of both sexes have made use of the program. We hope that these colleagues will be role models for all new parents. The Dutch government is also expanding the legal options for fathers to take parental leave.
We have an open dialogue with our employees and managers about equivalence and awareness and support that dialogue through different initiatives in our daily business: recruitment, job rotation, competencies, communication, storytelling, etc. For our female employees, we offer a monthly webinar program to raise awareness and take responsibility in their careers. Going forward, we want to be a modern employer of choice for the next and current generation.
Family Bond is much more than just a policy, it brings our values and our WE culture to life. We believe that our people make a difference and are the success of our organization. We use Family Bond to optimize work-life balance, equality and diversity by being a parent-friendly workplace.”
Studying the results of the pilot, the company found that employees appreciated the policy because it was gender-neutral and adaptable to personal needs. The studies also provided important insights on how to encourage even more employees to take parental leave and make parental leave for both parents the new ‘norm’.
Some of the obstacles hindering the take-up of parental leave include parents’ concerns about its potential impact on their team, fears about long-term career prospects and cultural attitudes about what is expected of fathers at work and at home.
To encourage the use of parental leave, Volvo Cars has communicated its parental leave policy more effectively. By presenting the 24 weeks of parental leave as a preferred option, the company aims to create a ‘default effect’ – essentially, people are more likely to stick with the preferred option. Ambiguous language, such as ‘maximum 24 weeks’, is avoided because we tend to predict negative outcomes when there is uncertainty. With this tactic, Volvo Cars aims to eliminate confusion and cultural barriers and offer parents certainty. To further highlight Volvo Cars’ commitment to reducing the gender gap, the company will share the results of its participation over time so that other companies can learn from the progress.
At the beginning of 2024, Volvo could add the newly established Sandy Myhre Award by Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year (WWCOTY) to its trophy cabinet.
With this award, WWCOTY wants to highlight car makers’ commitment to women in a number of areas, such as workplace inclusion, product design and advertising campaigns. The award also aims to make the car industry more aware of women’s needs and preferences when it comes to mobility.
What makes WWCOTY so special is that it is the only all-female jury in the automotive industry. It consists of 82 women motoring journalists from 55 countries across five continents, writing for publications that attract a total audience of over 500 million people worldwide.
Here is the jury’s official motivation: “Volvo Cars has long demonstrated its commitment to women. It has a large representation of women in the workforce, while in safety, it has been using pregnant dummies since 1995. In 2023, it partnered with Girls Who Code, an organization that works to close the gender gap in technology.”
In addition to these grand words, here’s why some of the individual journalists cast their vote for Volvo Cars.
Isabelle Rieder from Switzerland writes, “In recent years, Volvo Cars has been very committed to the integration of women, both in terms of wages and professionally. Volvo also strongly supports women not having to choose between family and career.”
Marta García from Spain notes that “Volvo has realized that women are not only in the passenger seat but that they have emotions and needs when it comes to driving. For years, Volvo has been working to connect with them, not only in the field of safety but also by promoting their inclusion in the workplace.”
Finally, Swedish journalist Mia Litström writes, “I nominate Volvo Cars for their outstanding commitment to gender equality and empowering women in the automotive industry. Volvo’s partnership with programs like Girls Who Code further demonstrates their dedication to fostering the next generation of female leaders in technology and innovation.”
Volvo Cars is very grateful for the Sandy Myhre Award! The brand really appreciates it and is looking forward to continuing to make a difference for women today and in generations to come.
The award is named after Sandy Myhre, a motoring journalist from New Zealand who founded Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year in 2009, together with eight other journalists.
Partnership: Volvo Contributes to Sustainable Mobility for Royal Dutch Rescue Society (KNRM)
With the commissioning of four fully electric Volvo EX30s and four EX40s, Volvo’s community partner Royal Dutch Rescue Society (KNRM) has taken another step in its commitment to sustainable and safe mobility. The popular SUVs were handed over to KNRM employees by Volvo Car Netherlands on Tuesday, 5 November 2024. This took place at Volvo dealer Van Kuyk in Beverwijk.
The choice of the Volvo EX30 and EX40 confirms the shared commitment of both KNRM and Volvo to safety and sustainability. Both organizations attach great value to these core principles. For KNRM, safe out, safe home’ is the most important principle, which fits seamlessly with Volvo’s commitment to a collision-free future.
The Volvo EX30s, with the smallest CO₂ footprint of any all-electric Volvo to date, and the versatile and familiar EX40s – Business Car of the Year 2024 – play an essential role in making KNRM’s fleet more sustainable. The cars will be used by employees performing support tasks for the rescue stations. This addition fits well with the sustainability goals of KNRM, which aims to achieve a 90% reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2035.
Roger van Polanen Petel: “Volvo offers freedom in mobility in a safe, sustainable and personal way. The choice of the Volvo EX30 and EX40 underlines KNRM’s commitment to our shared core values.
We are happy to contribute to KNRM’s ambition to become more sustainable. Over a year ago, we made two fully electric EC40s available to KNRM for a period of one year. That collaboration works well, and the EC40s have since been exchanged for two new Volvo EX30s.”
With a total of 11 all-electric Volvo cars in the fleet, including those made available by Volvo Car Netherlands and RDW – the first car in the new license plate series donated to KNRM – KNRM is making a clear and big step towards all-electric transport. This is in line with their long-term vision (ESG strategy) to use exclusively electric vehicles for staff transport and emergency services in the future.
The collaboration between KNRM and Volvo shows how safety and sustainability can go hand in hand, with electrification driving a greener and safer future. The three sponsored Volvo EX30s and the eight, at an attractively subsidized lease rate, electric Volvos endorse the wonderfully matching cooperation between KNRM and Volvo Car Nederland. Both organizations are enormously proud of this!
Partnership: Joint acceleration in sustainability: Team Picnic PostNL I Volvo Car Netherlands
Since 2020, Volvo Car Netherlands has supplied cycling team Team Picnic PostNL with their premium cars.
Team Picnic PostNL is proud and excited about its partnership with Volvo. Volvo’s are undisputedly a perfect match for their demanding and versatile mobility solution. Moreover, they align perfectly with their vision of sustainability and safety as a team with their continuous addition and innovation of safety technology in Volvo cars and the strides they are making in the electrification strategy.
Team Picnic PostNL and Volvo are fully aware of being part of the problem, so they also want to be part of the solution. To accelerate the path to a more sustainable and safer living environment, on and off the course, the two parties are very pleased with their collaboration.
Volvo Cars has been active in electrification since 2014 and is doing very well in the Netherlands. Nine out of ten cars in the Netherlands is a car with a cord – plug-in hybrid or pure electric. This makes Volvo the number one ‘cord brand’ and endorses the electrification strategy in the Netherlands. Volvo feels confident that both the fully electric cars and the long-range plug-in hybrids of the 60 and 90 series will further accelerate the sales pace of the electrification journey.
at Volvo Car Netherlands
In the cycling world, Team Picnic PostNL wants to be a forerunner when it comes to making cycling more sustainable. It also wants to inspire other teams to do more, in and outside the race.
In 2023, Team Picnic PostNL was the first cycling team in history to ride the entire Tour de France in an all-electric Volvo support car. A global first, which prompted both Volvo and Team Picnic to follow up appropriately on that road.
For both Volvo and Team Picnic PostNL, sustainability is not only in the pursuit of emission-free driving, they are looking at the core value in the broader sense. Combined with a focus on safety, it is these two core values that strongly connect both parties. Here, the focus is on safety in and around the car but also during the race, where Volvo wants to offer protection to vulnerable riders and other road users where necessary and possible.
