Volvo Car South Africa says that it has already sold its initial allocation of XC40 units for 2018 and now plans to bring in even more examples of its baby crossover before the year is out.

“Our initial allocation of 350 vehicles sold out before many even arrived in the country, so we have increased our XC40 volume to 700 units for the year. The XC40 is making a big impact in the local SUV segment,” said Greg Maruszewski, managing director of Volvo Car SA.

According to Naamsa, Volvo Car SA registered exactly 100 units of the XC40 in April, making it the Swedish brand’s most popular product … and seeing it outsell rivals such as the Jaguar E-Pace, BMW X2 and Audi Q2.

The news comes after Volvo announced that it would expand production of the XC40 in both Europe and China after having received “almost 80 000 orders” from around the world. Production would be increased at its Ghent manufacturing plant in Belgium (which supplies South Africa) and its Luqiao factory in China in the first half of 2019.

The automaker furthermore revealed that it plans to “capitalise on the popularity of its new smaller models” with the introduction of fresh vehicles based on its Compact Modular Architecture (CMA). In a statement, the Swedish brand said the new models would be “replacing the current V40”.