Of all Volvos sold in California last month, 77% were plug-in hybrids or EVs, the automaker said Thursday in a press release announcing its May 2022 North American sales.
That's an increase of 6% over the previous month, demonstrating the continued appetite for plug-in cars in California. Nationally, plug-in hybrids and EVs—which collectively get Recharge badging—represented 35.7% of the 9,372 cars Volvo sold in the United States in May.
2022 Volvo XC60 Recharge
That represents significant growth from just last year. In May 2021, Volvo confirmed met a previous goal in having plug-in hybrids top 20% of its U.S. sales, up from around 5% the year before.
Volvo is in the process of upgrading its plug-in hybrids with a bigger battery and more electric miles. It does good things to the XC60 Recharge, which we drove late last year, while the S60 Recharge sedan and V60 Polestar Engineered wagon should achieve 41 miles of electric range, Volvo claims. And to make sure customers get the message, Volvo has started masking exhaust tips.
2022 Volvo C40 Recharge
The automaker now has some all-electric models in its U.S. lineup as well. The EV lineup now includes the C40 Recharge and XC40 Recharge, and an electric version of the XC90 SUV is on the way.
The electric XC90 is expected to be the first production Volvo EV to ride on a dedicated platform. While the C40 Recharge and XC40 Recharge use the CMA platform shared with internal-combustion models, the XC90 EV is tipped to use a platform separate from other versions of the SUV. It will be one of the first models aimed at pushing Volvo to an all-electric lineup by 2030.
