Volvo Cars sees steady sales this year

Swedish automaker Volvo is projecting "more or less stable" sales this year following a decline of 6.0 percent last year, the group's chairman said here on Tuesday. Volvo Cars sold a total 422,000 units last year, chief executive Haakan Samuelsson told a symposium organised by the CAR Center Automotive Research. In 2011, Volvo sold about 449,000 cars. For the current year, the automaker is expecting sales to develop in line with the different markets -- a drop of about 3.0 percent in Europe, growth of around 5.0 percent in the United States and growth of 7.0-8.0 percent in China, Samuelsson said. The Swedish brand was acquired in 2010 by the Chinese maker Geely. Volvo is targeting sales of up to 800,000 by 2020 and in order to reach this goal is planning to focus of the high-end market, competing with the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz.