Volvo Car Group said global sales rose 14 percent year-on-year in September, its third straight month of rising deliveries, on the back of strong growth in China and Europe.

The company sold 40,952 cars in September as sales shot up 49 percent in China and 24 percent in Europe, eclipsing a decline of 16 percent in the United States.

The company, which ran a loss in the first half of the year, said that China was its single biggest market in the month of September.

Volvo is banking on strong growth in China, the home of its parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., to help it meet a target of roughly doubling sales to 800,000 cars by 2020.

This growth is pivotal as Volvo seeks to take on larger global luxury brands such as BMW Group, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen Group’s Audi and win a market share big enough to foot the bill for investments in development of new vehicles.

After a disappointing 2012, sales of Volvo models such as the S60 and XC60 have lately begun picking up in many of its markets though weakness in North America, traditionally its largest market by far, has lingered.

For the January to September period, sales were down 0.6 percent.