Volvo Cars to Cut 2,500 More Jobs After 3.7 Billion Crown Adjusted Q3 Loss; Shares Fall Nearly 30% in Stockholm

Since Volvo Cars scrapped its full-year sales volume and cash flow guidance earlier this month, the question was how bad the third quarter would be. On Friday, Oct. 23, the Geely-owned automaker answered: far worse than analysts expected.

Volvo reported an adjusted operating loss of 3.7 billion Swedish crowns ($373 million), compared with a profit of 5.8 billion a year earlier. Citi analysts put the consensus forecast at a loss of just 724 million crowns.

Below the operating line, the damage is bigger. Volvo posted a net loss of 5.7 billion crowns versus a net profit of 4.5 billion a year ago. Revenue came in at 66.9 billion crowns, down nearly 23% from the same quarter last year.

The job cuts

Volvo will eliminate about 2,500 jobs worldwide, roughly 6% of its workforce. About 2,000 of them are in Sweden.

The company says it will get there by ending consultant contracts, through natural attrition and through what it calls "targeted exit packages." Samuelsson told Reuters the cuts should be finished by mid-2027.

The layoffs come on top of the 3,000 job cuts announced after Samuelsson returned as CEO in 2025. They also come with a new 5 billion crown reduction in indirect spending and variable costs, stacked on 23 billion crowns of previously announced savings. Volvo expects the full financial effect by the end of 2027.

China is the biggest hole

The sharpest drop was in China. Volvo's deliveries there fell by more than 40% in the quarter, according to Bloomberg's account of the results, and China revenue fell by almost 50%.

Samuelsson told Bloomberg the market for Western-developed cars in China is disappearing fast. Local brands now dominate in electric vehicles, and the overall Chinese market is shrinking amid a spending slump.

Geely's ownership offered no cushion. Volvo is majority-owned by China's Geely Holding and still lost ground to domestic rivals.

The U.S. is a second problem. Volvo cites tariffs, weak demand and the removal of consumer incentives for fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars under President Donald Trump as hits to its margins. Gross margin fell to 14.7% from 20.4% a year earlier.

The market's verdict

Shares fell between roughly 27% and 30% in early Stockholm trading, hitting a record low, according to Bloomberg and Reuters. The stock had already touched a record low earlier this week. Reuters reports it is down more than two-thirds so far this year.

Volvo says it will protect margins over market share in both China and the U.S. rather than chase sales with deep discounts against domestic competitors. That choice means lower volumes for now.

What management says

Samuelsson defended the long-term plan while conceding the short term is rough. "We are convinced that we have the right long-term strategy addressing these challenges," he said. "However, in the short term, with severely challenged volumes, we need to reinforce our turnaround plan with additional decisive actions, lowering our break-even point and improving cash flows to make us more resilient."

He also described the quarter as "very disappointing" and said the year "has become far more challenging than originally anticipated." He pointed to de-globalisation, hypercompetition and climate change as outside pressures.

Volvo dropped its plan to sell only fully electric cars by 2030 back in 2024. That reversal did not keep the company out of the red in 2026.

What comes next

Samuelsson is on his way out. Volvo said in September that Škoda Auto CEO Klaus Zellmer will replace him no later than Oct. 1, 2027. That puts the successor in charge just as the new savings are meant to be fully in place.

Samuelsson did not rule out further measures if the turnaround plan falls short. Whether 2,500 more jobs and 5 billion crowns in savings are enough to offset a China business shrinking by half will show up in the fourth-quarter numbers, and Volvo has not offered full-year guidance to measure against.