Asia Tech Wire (July 5) -- Volvo Cars, a Swedish automaker owned by Chinese automotive group Geely, saw its new energy vehicle (NEV) sales account for 48% of its global sales in June.

Volvo Cars said June sales rose 8% from a year earlier to 71,514 units. The increase was due to the automaker's strong performance in Europe and Latin America, as well as its new fully electric model, the EX30.

Sales of new energy vehicles, including battery electric and plug-in hybrid models, rose 41% and accounted for 48% of its global vehicle sales.

Sales in Europe rose 34% year-on-year to 36,474 units in June, while sales in the U.S. fell 28% to 9,304 units, partly because thousands of dealerships had experienced IT issues that disrupted normal operations, the company said.

CDK Global, the software provider for about 15,000 car dealerships in North America, suffered a cyberattack nearly two weeks ago that prevented its customers from operating their businesses normally.

Volvo Cars reported total global sales of 388,073 units in the first half of the year, up 14% from the same period last year.