Volvo Car AB
STO:VOLCAR B
Volvo Car AB
Volvo Car AB, a symbol of Scandinavian craftsmanship and innovation, traces its roots back to Gothenburg, Sweden, where it was founded in 1927. Known for its emphasis on safety and durability, the company has long stood as a beacon of trust in the automotive industry. Over the years, Volvo has evolved, yet it steadfastly maintains its core philosophies: a commitment to safety, quality, and environmental care. While its beginnings were modest, producing cars primarily for Sweden, Volvo has since widened its reach globally. Today, the company is driven by a vision to be a leader in the premium electric car market, having embraced sustainable technology and advanced automation as part of its strategic direction.
Volvo generates its revenue predominantly by designing, manufacturing, and selling luxury vehicles, with a strong focus on electric and hybrid technology. The company has transformed its lineup to include fully electric models, aligning with growing consumer and regulatory demand for greener transportation alternatives. By incorporating innovative features such as advanced driver assistance systems, Volvo enhances the value of its vehicles, catering to a clientele that places high importance on safety and technology. Furthermore, the company expands its reach through strategic joint ventures and partnerships, which not only diversify its product offerings but also help it tap into emerging markets. In addition to car sales, Volvo capitalizes on services like financing and insurance, creating a comprehensive ecosystem around its vehicles that bolsters its bottom line.
Earnings Calls
In Q1, Volvo Cars reported a 19% drop in wholesale volumes, leading to a 12% decline in revenues to SEK 83 billion and an EBIT margin of only 2.3%. The new leadership has initiated an SEK 18 billion cost-reduction program, aimed at profitability improvements by 2026. Electrification remains a key strategy, with 43% of sales being electrified vehicles. The company plans to enhance regional autonomy to respond better to local market conditions, particularly in the US and China, where sales dynamics have become highly competitive.
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Good morning, and a very warm welcome to the presentation of Volvo Car's First Quarter Financial Results for 2025 coming to you live from our headquarters in Gothenburg. My name is Ron. Those were, of course, images of the EX30 rolling off the production line in Ghent, which just started a few days ago.
This morning for the earnings call, we have our President and Chief Executive, Hakan Samuelsson. We have our Chief Financial Officer, Fredrik Hansson. And at the top of this call, Hakan and Fredrik will walk us through our performance. And thereafter, we'll throw it open for a question-and-answer round. Exactly how you participate in the Q&A round. It should be quite familiar to all of you by now, but I'll still come back closer to the Q&A session.
But for now, Hakan, I'll leave the floor to you.
Thank you, Ron. So good morning to all of you. We will tell you today what has happened during the quarter 1 and also very importantly, what are we acting on to counteract these results. So first, snapshot of the environment. It's very challenging. I think you can read that every day in the papers. We have a combination of 3 factors. The volume has dropped slightly, especially on the wholesale side, you will learn more about that. That's negative, of course. Pricing also pressured from new competition, a lot of new electric players on the market, but they are also influencing pricing generally. And on top of that, tariffs moving every day new ideas. But very negative, of course, for the sentiment on the market, but also extra costs. So these 3 factors are behind the result, which we will go into more in detail later.
Sales is down 2%. Revenues down also. And of course, the result of this drop in EBIT from close to 5% down to [ 2.3 ]. And cash flow also down, but not that much. We had also there a one-timer with the sales of Lynk & Co. All of this, Fredrik will talk more about. But with this result as a background, we have launched then a program addressing 3 areas. It is profitability. We launched a package worth SEK 18 billion of free cash flow will be mainly effective in 2026, but we're also addressing direct cost and indirect cost. We are seeing a more tailored approach, giving the autonomous -- more autonomy, more empowerment to the regions to react faster for local conditions and local customer preferences. This will happen to China. We will do it also in America. I will come back to that.
And the third area we are working with is electrification, where we are quite sure about the future of these companies as an electric -- full electric company, but we are also a bridging solution selling plug-in hybrids. And the share of electrified vehicle was 43% in quarter 1, and that's one of the absolute highest among premium competitors. So it's a very good movement into direction of electrification.
With that, I'll leave the word to you, Fredrik, and I take the opportunity also to introduce Fredrik Hansson, our new CFO, since a couple of days, and you will be leading us through these difficult times and looking into further cost actions. So welcome, Fredrik.
Thank you, Hakan. So let's jump into the financials, starting with a quick overview. So retail sales, as you see, 172,000 cars, down 6% year-on-year. But importantly, wholesale volumes, which is really what's driving our financials, is down a full 19%. And that's also why we're showcasing it here on the page. And this is on the back of both a very strong Q1 in the last year, where we had the ramp-up of the EX60 basically filling the pipeline at dealers with wholesales of the -- sorry, EX30 and also from -- on the back of a strong Q4, which is now hitting back a bit in Q1.
This wholesale drop translates also to revenues, which is down 12% at SEK 83 billion and EBIT at a disappointing 2.3%, both including and excluding JVs. This is then largely explained by the wholesale volumes we talked about, but importantly, also one-off effects in FX from the very strong SEK. Cash flow, seasonally down in Q1 as it usually is, but we are SEK 6 billion better than last year. This is, of course, helped by the cash from the Lynk & Co. transaction, but it's still a resilient cash flow, especially given the lower sales and profit.
Double-clicking a bit on revenues. You again see the volume here has the big drop with SEK 15 billion down, explained by the wholesales. Used cars, up SEK 1.6 billion, basically as the rental channel is now back to normal. FX in the quarter was actually up. And on average, we had a weaker SEK in the quarter. But as you know, it ended with a very, very strong SEK appreciation that has continued since. So in total, we landed revenues, excluding contract manufacturing at SEK 80.9 billion, which is a 12% drop year-on-year.
Turning to EBIT, and we focus on the core EBIT, excluding JVs and associates. You can here see that the volumes had a material effect, SEK 3.5 billion down on the result. We also had negative effects from sales mix and pricing, which is largely driven by an increased price pressure in the past 12 months. This was, however, more than offset with material cost reductions and other items, but we unfortunately had this very negative FX effect in the end of the quarter of SEK 1.9 billion. And here, SEK 1.7 billion of the SEK 1.9 billion is more of a one-off nature. It's basically a balance sheet revaluation at the end of the quarter where the SEK was very, very strong. So in all, this takes us to an EBIT of SEK 1.9 billion or 2.3%, both on a core and group EBIT.
If we turn to liquidity, we started the year at SEK 56 billion in cash, SEK 89 billion total liquidity. EBITDA then contributed with SEK 8 billion, whereas net working capital was down due to a normal seasonal buildup of inventory with SEK 11 billion. Investments of SEK 4 billion and then some reduction in financing, but this is also largely a currency effect of the strengthening SEK. So we're ending the quarter at a very, very strong liquidity position of SEK 73 billion in total, whereof SEK 47 billion is in cash.
So we stand with a very strong balance sheet. But as Hakan alluded to, there is a lot of uncertainty and near-term headwinds, which is impacting both cash and EBIT. U.S. tariffs have started and will kick in with full force very, very soon. We have started to take countermeasures against that, but more measures are needed. We have the EX30 in Ghent, which started production just last week, but that production is also ramping up and coming to full speed only in the second half. And it's also only in the second half of the year where we get help from a further strengthened product lineup with 2 new products being launched and going into production and also the already launched EX90 going into production.
So in light of this turbulence and that this turbulence likely stretches beyond 2025, the first cornerstone of our plan here is profitability. For U.S., we are taking commercial measures linked to pricing and what cars we sell and ship. And the net effect after these commercial mitigations, we estimate to a 1% to 2% negative on our group EBIT margin. So we need to do more than that, more than commercial mitigations. And that's also in light of other uncertainties we see. That's why we're today launching an SEK 18 billion cost and cash action plan aimed to forcefully protect our profitability and to help offset these headwinds we see.
So let me give you some details. So this plan has 3 components. It's variable cost, it's indirect spend, it's additional CapEx and working capital improvements. And here, we aim for at least SEK 3 billion in variable cost reductions. We aim for at least SEK 5 billion in indirect spend reduction, and this is in 2026 full year versus a full year '24 baseline. In addition to that, we're targeting SEK 10 billion in CapEx and working capital improvements. And this is importantly beyond the already planned CapEx reductions we've shown before in '25 and '26.
Another thing which is important to note here is that the variable cost will impact EBIT in full. The indirect spend, however, also includes engineering and things that are capitalized. So we see that roughly half will hit EBIT in 2026. The rest will hit EBIT, but over time. All of this will, of course, then impact cash in the coming 2 years.
To give you some more flavor of what we're doing then. So on variable cost, we're aiming for more than SEK 3 billion, and this is really an acceleration of our structured holistic executive level variable cost program. This is at the highest attention of the company. And we are working across the value chain and also in deeper collaboration with Geely to help reduce product costs across materials, across manufacturing and across logistics. And importantly, when we say SEK 3 billion here, this is real bottom line savings. So this is including headwinds from inflation, from claims, from parts price increases and other things. This is real money hitting the bottom line.
On indirect, we have just launched a company-wide indirect spend reduction program. And here, we're basically engaging the entire company in a zero-based cost approach. We're looking at all our priorities to see what we should be delivering on. And importantly, for the things we are delivering on, how can we find structural lasting efficiency. And to make sure that we execute on this, we also have a hard central steer on this. We track all initiatives with implementation level tracking and forcefully drive this to make sure we reach the finish line.
On CapEx and working capital, it's SEK 10 billion. This is in part continued efforts to optimize working capital. As you've seen, we've improved in the past, but we continue down that path, and we're taking steps with systems and processes to optimize, for example, the inventory we have. We are lowering CapEx in part from reprioritization, but also from efficiencies, basically getting the same for less. And important here is that we're doing this still protecting the foundations for our profitable growth going forward. And these investment reductions are in addition to the already planned lower investment profile that we have shown to you before.
So with that, that was the first cornerstone of our plan. Let me hand back to Hakan to present the other 2.
Thank you, Fredrik. So the other 2 are then our regionalization. We are going into a more empowered region structure and electrification. To give you some flavor, what has happened, Europe, very important is to import the EX -- stop importing the EX30 from China and producing it in Ghent, and that will happen now. The ramp-up of that car will be done in the second half of '25. So that's one example of a more Europe with producing all of its cars in Europe.
China will be given a much higher empowerment to react faster, as I said. And some examples what we are doing, we are launching a new car, which is especially designed and tailored for the Chinese market, a long-range plug-in hybrid will be launched later this year. And Americas, we will also give a higher empowerment. We will also regionally redefine that it will be, again, Americas as geographical region, North America, U.S., Canada, of course, but also Latin America.
And here, we will bring in to lead this region, Luis Rezende. He will take up this job soon as possible. And I think formally from 1st of July, he will take over responsibility. And he will then leave over Latin America to a successor and fully concentrated bringing our U.S. business back on track, putting in the right factories in the Charleston factory to increase utilization, but also to have a car that can sell in high volumes on the U.S. market. And he's also going to work to improve the cooperation with our U.S. dealers. So that's happened in the region.
When you look then into the third area, electrification, you can look to the left on this. There is a lot of talk on the market that the transition to electrification is slowing down and it's not going to happen as we thought. But if you look at the figures for January, February, I think we are encouraged in our transformation into electrification. Fully electric cars, China up 41% compared with same period last year. U.S., 14% up; in Europe, 31% up. And you see what's happening in the non-BEV segments. negative figures, making that segment, of course, less attractive for the future.
If you look into our position, we are at 43% of our cars are chargeable, and that's the highest among our competitors. And the all-electric share is at 19%. So I think we are progressing exactly according to plan, making this company long term an all-electric company. But of course, with a pragmatic approach, some customers cannot charge their car for them. We need bridge solution and that we have in the form of plug-in hybrids.
New products in the pipeline, as I said earlier, we have this long-range PHEV for China and very important for Europe and U.S. and all new SUV 60 -- EX60, all electric is coming in 2026. So electrification according to plan.
If I summarize now what we have said, this year will be a very challenging and turbulent year, as you have heard, we are concentrating on delivering the SEK 18 billion improvement of free cash flow to really secure our cash flow and profitability looking ahead. Exactly how much of this package will influence the bottom line, how it will influence is difficult to say. That's why Fredrik has said, we will give no guidance on that. But we're giving guidance on this package, we will deliver, and we will continue regionalizing the regions that I think is going to improve profitability. And that means our strategy for profitable growth remains and the package is intended to bring our company back on that track.
As last picture, I want to remind you of our all-new electric car who got this very prestigious award, World Car of the Year. So that's now something we will concentrate on selling to our customers globally.
Thank you for your attention so far. And I think here, Ron will come back to lead us on the question-and-answer session. So, Ron?
Thanks, Hakan. Thanks. All right. So we are all set now to start the Q&A session. So as I said at the start of the call, there are 2 ways you can participate. As you know, you can either send in your questions via the chat, please. You should be able to see a chat window at the bottom of your screen, in which case I will read out your questions to Hakan and Fredrik. [Operator Instructions] So I can see quite a few callers on the line and quite a few questions coming in.
So let me take the first one and whoever wants to take this. Volvo Cars has now withdrawn its 2026 ambitions as well. Are we to understand then that you're also abandoning your ambition for profitable growth?
Absolutely not.
No. I mean, our path towards profitability remains, and we are protecting the foundation for that profitable growth. This is really to protect against the additional headwinds and uncertainties we see why we're launching this forceful cost action. Importantly, talking about growth, Hakan mentioned it here, we have the EX60 coming out and EX60 being our best-selling cars when you look at the XC60, our most important segment. It's also the most important premium BEV segment. We're not even playing in that segment yet. That car is coming next year. So we see great opportunities for future growth on the back of extremely efficient and attractive electric products.
And I think also what I said about regionalization is quite important. I mean, all of our competitors are struggling in China, for example, and losing really market share. So it's obvious that we need there more empowered and much more fast-acting organization. So that's really what we're doing. So I think that's also very important if you look into future growth and profitability. And I would be surprised if not all of our competitors will do something similar. So I think we are reacting fast here to this new situation.
Good. Maybe we can go and take our first caller then for this morning. And our first caller is from HSBC, and that is Pushkar Tendolkar. And if you could keep your questions to 2 and maybe if you have the time, we will come back again. So Pushkar, please go ahead.
Okay, sure. So firstly, best wishes to Hakan and Fredrik for getting back to their old role -- new roles. And then yes, I'll restrict myself to 2 questions. The first one then is on -- just a clarification from Fredrik. If you can, you just mentioned 1% to 2% negative on group EBIT from the U.S. Is it correct to assume that, that is tariffs net of whatever pricing actions you take, whether that understanding is correct, I just wanted to clarify, if you can.
And then more longer term for maybe Hakan. So Volvo earlier had a 1.2 million volume target. You've already gone back on that. It's to do with the EV -- whole EV transition being slower than what you would have earlier expected. So I can understand that. But it kind of leaves you in a very subscale position with just selling around 700,000 units annually. So in terms of growth, how do you see that going forward towards, I mean, over the next 4, 5 years, what regions, what products, what technologies are going to drive that? I mean, just wanted to get your views on that, if you can.
The ambition is, of course, still there. And I think I already addressed one, of course, is to really come back to growth in China. And for that, we need a more agile, more regional organization with more empowerment and autonomy. So I think that is a very important one. Also for the U.S., we are looking into delegating more responsibility, having the region take responsibility of the factory utilization and be part of the discussions also what cars we will build there to really secure that we are acting locally. So the regionalization, I think, is important, very difficult to grow with a global strategy in the future.
And then, of course, we are still convinced that electrification will give us a lead. And even if it would slow down, which I don't think is true, I just say it goes back and forth, you should not be encouraged for some months of a bit negative number, it will grow. And that market segment is definitely big enough for Volvo to capture our volume ambitions. But on top of this, of course, we need to secure profitability to really afford to do our future-oriented investments. And that's really we are starting with, with the package that Fredrik talked about.
And Fredrik, a clarification, 1.2 percentage...
Yes. So the 1 to 2 percentage point is on group EBIT, and it's net effect. So tariffs and the commercial mitigation actions we're taking and that we have already started, which includes pricing measures. It includes optimizing what cars we sell in the U.S. market. This is also why we're taking a cost package. So that goes then on top of this as a further mitigation and the SEK 18 billion we talked about.
Thanks, Pushkar, for your questions. Let's take one that's come in from Harry Martin from Bernstein. He has a couple of questions, but let me take them one by one. Maybe that's more for you then, Hakan. Of course, a period of a lot of disruption in the overall market. Do you expect more consolidation to happen in the sector? Do you expect more on the OEM side consolidation, more on the supplier front? Just some of your thoughts on consolidation during this point of -- this period of disruption.
Yes, for sure. I mean, all other technology shifts has led to consolidation. It would be strange to not expect the same thing here. And of course, for suppliers, a lot of suppliers concentrating on making parts for combustion engine, of course, there will be a structure there. And -- but in a change period, I think it's important to adapt fastest. I mean that's a simple reaction that we are taking. And electric cars are really better cars and customers will love them. The only drawback is the charging capacity, which is improving rather drastically as we speak. So I'm sure at the end, the cars at least in Europe will be mainly electrified. And then that's also, of course, our big success factor to be part of that transition.
Good. And he had a follow-up question. I'll take that to you then, Fredrik. On current tariffs announced and your plan, which you've outlined, where do you expect liquidity at the end of 2025?
We don't provide financial guidance, as we just said. But it's important to note we're starting from a very strong liquidity position, right? So we ended the quarter with SEK 47 billion in cash, SEK 73 billion in total liquidity. So we're comfortable with the situation we're in.
Thank you. Let's take another caller, and that is Hampus Engellau from Handelsbanken.
Two questions for me. Firstly, maybe a little bit nitty-gritty, but I just noticed the U.S. sales during the quarter were up 8% and would be interested to hear your thoughts on any prebuy impact on that and if that would affect potentially second quarter?
Second question is more related to China. The ES90, of course, a very interesting product for that market. Still, it is very much a plug-in hybrid market for you guys. And you also mentioned launching a long-range plug-in hybrid. Can you talk a little bit about how you see the potential for Volvo in battery electrics in China, given that it's the biggest market?
I'll start with that, you can think about the first. I mean, market now in March, I have the figures in my head. It's a very easy split. It's 1/3 is all electric, 1/3 is a longer-range PHEVs and 1/3 are conventional cars. So I mean, the thing that has happened, the Europeans have struggled to really take a position in the all electric segment, but also in the plug-in segment. And I mean, that's really what we will address then with a stronger empowered region. We must come back into selling cars, both all electric, but also plug-in hybrids. You mentioned we have all electric cars. There will be new more ones in the pipeline, but we need also longer-range plug-in hybrid, and that is a car that will be launched later this year. So with those cars and the greater empowerment of the region, our ambition is to come back and not leave the Chinese so-called new energy segment, which is really something that would otherwise happen and what we're seeing happening also with our competitors massively losing to Chinese competition.
And maybe adding to that, we also have a unique opportunity in China, right? Because I think a lot of the new energy vehicle competition is coming from China ecosystems, China tech and with our collaboration with Geely, we have access to that in China for China.
And this new vehicle is also something we're cooperating with Geely about developing. So I think it's a very important point, which is unique to our company.
Yes.
And some color maybe on U.S. sales. Fredrik, if you could.
Yes. So it's a difficult market to judge, right? We're seeing good sales traction. Importantly, we have already started to take pricing measures. So in 2 steps, so prices are already up. Is this, to some extent, prebuys? Probably, but it's a bit too early to tell really how the market will unfold. We're seeing that we are taking proactive actions in many cases, ahead of our competitors. And we continue to monitor the market now on basically a daily basis, both in what's happening at the dealers, what our competitors are doing and then the tariff situation, which I guess evolved even this night, if I understood...
A bit better today.
Yes.
Thank you. Another caller then, and this comes in from Deutsche Bank. And we have Nikita Lal from Deutsche Bank on the phone line.
First of all, all the best for your new positions in the company. I would have 2 questions, if I may. So the first one is on the U.S. tariffs. Could you give some more color on your production in Charleston? Are you expecting to ramp up further products there? Any indications would be great.
And the second question is, can you elaborate where you see opportunities to work closer with Geely to reduce the costs?
Yes. The U.S. factory has a capacity way higher than we are utilizing. We are building 2 cars there, the EX90 full electric for Europe and for the U.S., and we're building the Polestar 3 also for Europe and U.S. So of course, these cars are fairly new, so we need to sell them in higher volumes, but it will not be enough to fill the factory. So we need another car, which we will bring in as soon as possible, and that will not be an all-electric car. It has to be a more conventional plug-in hybrid in a very attractive and popular shape and form, so it can really bring up the volume. So that is the plan really for North America, giving us exportation, which should be able to use in the drawback system to import the other cars. This is all a bit unclear, but moving every day. But I mean, the scope was to use Charleston also for exportation, allowing importation with the drawback system. So this is still our base plan.
When it comes to opportunities with Geely, I think we talked about one very short range. This SEK 3 billion is based really on a very close cooperation with Geely looking into part numbers, benchmarking, comparing suppliers and so on. I mean, that's a unique opportunity, very few carmakers can do. We have this insight. Looking ahead, I'm also quite sure we can do much more in harmonizing our platforms to bring in even more, especially on the hardware side. I mean, the electrification need to be regional, Western and Chinese, but the mechanical parts, we have a possibility to bring up the volumes and bring down the cost, and that will be, of course, to add that on top, it will be an advantage for us. And we can do more there. We're looking into that.
Very good. Thank you. I hope that answers all the questions, Nikita. Let's take another one that's come in via the chat. Is it still Volvo's ambition to have its own battery production? Any updates you can give on that, especially in Sweden? Hakan, maybe for you.
For an electric car company, I think it's a huge strategic advantage to have know-how and core competence in battery production. And I mean, I often compare it with. In the old world, you need to have competence in combustion engine. I think in the new world, you need to be in the know-how field of batteries. So we had the NOVO factory was intended to be that. Right now, we are finalizing the building of that facility. Next step would be to bring in equipment to build batteries and -- but that will require a technology partner, which we're looking into various options. I think also it requires that we can utilize that factory not just for Volvo, but also for other Geely brands, which also are selling cars in Europe, for example, Lynk & Co., where we have a cooperation selling their cars on the market. So I mean, that would give us volume. If we can find a solution giving us higher volume, securing technology, I think it's absolutely our ambition to continuing that, but it's something that's too early to say that it will happen too many uncertain variables. But we will, of course, come back to that. But it's an ambition, it's a strategic advantage, yes.
Good. And maybe to clarify and emphasize, this is also contingent on finding a partner, right? And we do not foresee major investments in the near term. So we need to collaborate.
Good. Let's take our next caller then, and that's from JPMorgan. This is Jose Asumendi on the phone line.
And Hakan and Fredrik, great to meet again. A couple of questions for Hakan. Hakan, since the IPO time, a lot of things have changed. A lot of the management has changed. So just one simple question. Do you have the right management team to drive the company in the different areas? Do you expect additional changes there? If you could just reflect a little bit on the team and the resources you have to stabilize the group?
And then second, Hakan, just a bit more sort of medium term. I don't want to go into the cost-cutting plan. I think, Fredrik, he's done a great job explaining the cost-cutting plan and the impact this year, next year, et cetera. But in your -- as you've taken over, again, the company and you think about sort of the next 2 years or 3 years, what do you think is the level of car sales Volvo Car needs to achieve on a 2-year basis? And what is the level of CapEx you think you need to have to ensure that Volvo Car generates cash on its own, right? Not so much the next quarter, the next 6 months, a little bit more medium term, you're taking again the CEO job. How do you think about the 2-year view, level of sales, level of CapEx and ensuring that the company is on strong track to generate cash?
The team, as you know, we have done some changes. We are announcing today a stronger lead for the Americas region, Luis Rezende. And he has now to, of course, look into the team he has there to really make America the strong empowered region it should be in China, the same thing has happened. We are going to steer that company much more as an autonomous company, joint venture, which is. And then that, of course, requires strengthening of the team. But [ Xiaolin ] is the CEO there and he is doing a good job. And beside me, we have a new CFO. So I think we have done some changes in that direction. And I think we have the right team now to proceed back on our strategic ambition.
And your question is really what could we expect in the next 2 years? I think we should -- depending, of course, the market is -- right now, it looks like it's not going to be in a growth mode right now. It's going back a bit. But we will, of course, work with our market share, the advantage we will get with electrification. So we will continue growing. But most importantly, we need to really improve our profitability. So I mean, that's prior #1 right now, and that's why we launched this package. And that is more important than reaching a certain volume growth. Of course, there is an economy of scale, but we should concentrate more there on finding synergies between Geely and Volvo to lower the structural cost. And on top of that, we need to work more efficient to be a leaner organization. That is right now more important than absolutely us growing.
And as we said before, we are protecting also the foundation for that growth, right? So EX60, we're going into the most important segment, which we're not playing in despite us being a leader in electrification among our peers. And our real stronghold the PHEVs. We're now coming first in China with an extended range PHEVs, so basically upping the game a lot also on the PHEV side. And that should be a good foundation for growth. Then a lot of market uncertainty. We are removing the guidance due to that uncertainty, but we're still confident in the products that will come and our ability to focus on what we fully can control, which is the cost.
Thanks and hopefully, that answers all your questions. Thanks for calling in, Jose. Maybe on the theme of protecting investments for future growth. Any updates on Slovakia? Like is that still part of the plan? And is that still baked in, in our investment curve that we have shown previously?
It's still part of our program. And right now, of course, we are looking into the programs that will be built in that factory. And I think we also need to look a bit closer into possibilities to get in other Geely brands there very closely. So of course, Polestar are also having cars in the pipeline. So that's something we are looking into. Could they also join and share this factory would, of course, be really good for us because at the end, it's a cost that has to be carried with production volume in the factory.
Good. Maybe we can take a couple of more questions then before we wrap this call. This is again regarding the U.S. production of the EX90. How much is EX90 have been impacted by tariffs on parts and components?
It's been quite heavily impacted. However, there was also news tonight. To be honest, I'm not fully up to speed that component tariffs may be some sort of softness, but it is impacted by the duties quite a lot.
Good. And then maybe we can take one more question, perhaps return to you then, Hakan, and maybe you can also -- we can take this opportunity to also bring this call to a close. Now Hakan, now that you're back after 3 years, a little bit on what Jose was asking also since IPO, a lot has changed. But 3 years, you've come back, a lot has changed. Any strategic change that you would make for the future of Volvo Cars? Is that something that is -- that you're considering? Maybe you did outline a little bit, but maybe you can [ give the opportunity ] again to...
I think you should come back to my 3 areas then I think we need stronger empowered regions. I mean, this is a reaction to really a new geopolitical situation. We will not have a global word if we like it or not, that will go into a more regional and the preferences from customers will then deviate more and more. So we need an organization who can react to that. That is China -- Volvo Greater China with a much more autonomous empowered approach. Volvo America is exactly the same. And then we, of course, in the middle, have Europe, which we are running here from Gothenburg. So I think that's one strategic reaction.
The other is electrification, still on course but be pragmatic, if some customers cannot charge all electric cars, then we will sell them other cars till they are ready. So we are not going to be dogmatic in electrification. Electrification is a biggest opportunity for our company, and we should really proceed in that direction. But a bit more pragmatic. I think that's maybe changed from 3 years ago. And the third area, nothing of this will happen if we don't bring the company back into a lean cost structure and improve the profitability, absolutely priority #1.
Okay. Hakan, Fredrik, thank you very much for your time, and thank you, everybody, for joining in for our first quarter presentation. If you have any follow-up questions, do reach out to the Investor Relations team or the Media Relations team. We are there for you all day long. But from all of us here, have a great day ahead. Goodbye.
Thank you.
Thank you.