“We are resolute in our belief that our future is electric,” said Jim Rowan, chief executive of Volvo.
“However, it is clear that the transition to electrification will not be linear, and customers and markets are moving at different speeds.”
The company also said the business climate for EVs had changed, due to factors such as a slow rollout of charging infrastructure and the withdrawal of consumer incentives.
Independent equity analyst Anna McDonald said consumers still had concerns about switching to EVs.
“Some of the subsidies that governments had put in place to encourage electric car purchases have ended and also there’s just that ongoing lack of demand because consumers are worried about charging,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.
“It still remains the case that electric cars remain more expensive.
“While the EU and the US are putting tariffs on Chinese cars that are imported to stop them kind of swamping the market, that just means that vehicles have to be made outside China which is more expensive in themselves.
“Car manufacturers are not keen to start making a loss on these vehicles,” Ms McDonald added.
Registrations of EVs across the European Union dropped by nearly 11% in July, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Volvo is majority-owned by Chinese car giant Geely and because it uses factories in China, it will also be affected by tariffs on imports of Chinese-made EVs in Europe and North America.
Last week, Canada announced it was imposing a 100% tariff on imports of China-made electric vehicles, after similar announcements by the US and the EU.
Western countries have accused China of subsidising its EV industry, giving its car makers an unfair advantage.
China has rejected those allegations and criticised the tariffs as “discriminatory”.
Ford has also been scaling back on its EV ambitions. Just last month, the US car giant announced it was scrapping plans for a large, three-row, all-electric sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and postponing the launch of its next electric pick-up truck.
Its rival General Motors has also been cutting EV production goals in the last year.