The Volvo Cars freeze covers about 20,000 office staff, not the plants
Volvo Cars employs about 20,000 white-collar staff worldwide, and the freeze applies to all of them. The memo describes stopping external hiring and taking a more restrictive approach to external spending, which covers recruitment, contingent workers and consultancy. Internal job moves are paused as well while the company reviews career paths and rotation. Production is untouched, and that matters in Belgium: Volvo Car Gent employs around 6,000 people, builds the EX30 and the XC40 family, and has just been opened to contract work for other brands.
Net cash fell from SEK 26.9 billion to SEK 10.1 billion in six months
Volvo’s net cash fell from SEK 26.9 billion at the end of 2025 to SEK 10.1 billion by 30 June, down 62 percent. Cash flow from operating and investing activities was negative SEK 10.0 billion in the first quarter and SEK 5.2 billion in the second. Volvo blames most of the second-quarter outflow on a planned build-up of stock at Torslanda for the electric EX60, and still forecasts roughly break-even free cash flow for the full year. Liquidity, including SEK 22.2 billion of undrawn credit lines, stood at SEK 63.6 billion. S&P and Moody’s both rate Volvo one notch below investment grade, with a negative outlook.
Volvo shares are worth 71 percent less than the SEK 53 listing price
Volvo priced its Stockholm listing at SEK 53 a share in October 2021, at the bottom of its range. That valued the company at about $18 billion. At SEK 15.54 on 29 September the B share was worth 71 percent less. It closed 2025 at SEK 30.70, so almost half of its value has gone this year alone. The second quarter explains the slide: revenue fell 17 percent to SEK 77.7 billion, the operating margin was 1.1 percent, and income from selling emission credits shrank from SEK 1.6 billion to SEK 0.5 billion.
Volvo’s China sales fell 35 percent while Europe grew 2 percent
Volvo’s retail sales fell 8 percent to 324,817 cars in the first half and 7.4 percent to 148,239 cars from June to August. The damage is concentrated in one market. In the second quarter Greater China fell 35 percent, while Europe and the rest of the world rose 2 percent and the Americas 4 percent. Chief commercial officer Erik Severinson says Volvo is protecting transaction prices in China and the US rather than buying volume with discounts. Fully electric cars made up 29 percent of sales from June to August.
The freeze is Volvo’s third office measure since May 2025
Volvo announced about 3,000 job cuts in May 2025, mostly office roles, as part of an SEK 18 billion cost and cash plan. Headcount is now around 3,000 lower. On 31 August it said the Stockholm office closes on 1 March 2027, moving about 450 jobs to Gothenburg. The SEK 5 billion savings target for 2026 was reached six months early. The next checkpoint is the third-quarter report on 23 October; the one after that is Klaus Zellmer’s arrival from Škoda, no later than 1 October 2027.
AutoNext Take
The stock market is pricing Volvo as a company running out of money, and its own numbers say otherwise. Most of the SEK 16.8 billion that left the balance sheet this year is sitting at Torslanda in the shape of EX60s, and SEK 63.6 billion of liquidity is a cushion, not a crisis. Freezing consultants and office hires while leaving the factories alone puts the pain where Volvo has already shown it can cut, and keeps the plants that build the recovery running at full strength.
The EX60 now has to turn that stock into cash. When Volvo reports on 23 October, we expect the cash outflow to have narrowed sharply from the SEK 5.2 billion of the second quarter, with the fourth quarter delivering the strong positive free cash flow Volvo has promised. If the third quarter shows the drain unchanged, this freeze will become a round of cuts long before Zellmer takes over.
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