Volvo Cars sales fall 10% in March as fully electric sales dive

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Volvo Cars sold 70,737 cars in March, down 10% from a year earlier as sales of fully electric cars tumbled, the Sweden-based company said on Wednesday, sending its shares down.

Volvo Cars, which is majority-owned by China's Geely, said in a statement sales in Europe were down 9% while in the United States and China they were down 8% and 22%, respectively.

Sales of fully electric cars fell 26% to account for 19% of total sales, while sales of electrified cars as a whole, also including plug-in hybrids, were down 9% to 43% of total sales.

Volvo Cars announced on Sunday it had brought back former CEO Hakan Samuelsson to head the company for the next two years at a turbulent time marked by mounting tariff pressures, replacing Jim Rowan who has run the group since 2022.

Its shares were down 2% at 0725 GMT, taking a year-to-date drop to 24% and underperforming the wider market in Stockholm.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik)