e growth was related to a planned ramp up in production. During the month of October, Volvo Cars also started production of the fully electric C40 Recharge in Ghent.
Volvo Cars' sales in the US reached 104,066 cars in the first 10 months of the year, up 23.5 per cent compared with the same period last year. For the month of October, sales reached 8,701 cars, of which Recharge cars accounted for 24.1 per cent of the overall sales.
Sales in China for the January-to-October period landed at 143,616 cars, up 10.5 per cent compared with the same period last year. In October, the number of cars sold reached 11,006 cars, a decline of 34.2 per cent compared to October 2020, primarily due to a shortage of supply which affected production.
Volvo Cars' sales in Europe reached 242,495 cars in the first 10 months of the year, up 6.1 per cent compared with the same period last year. The sales performance for the month of October was affected by the shortage of available cars, which resulted in a decline to 22,124 cars. However, the demand was strong and resulted in a pick up in sales in markets such as Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Globally, the XC60 continued to be the best-selling model for the company in the January-to-October period, retailing 177,995 cars (2020: 149,855), followed by the XC40 with total sales of 170,907 cars (2020: 142,159 units) and the XC90 with 89,041 cars sold (2020: 70,195 units).