Volvo’s Indian debut:
Swedish car major Volvo Car Corporation (VCC) on August 29th announced plans to make its debut in India with two flagship products – S80 sedan and sports utility vehicle XC90 SUV– with prices starting at Rs 38 lakh and Rs 45 lakh respectively. VCC, which will be launching its two products early next month, said both the vehicles will be available in petrol (3.2 ltr and 4.4 ltr) and diesel variants (2.5 ltr) at the three Volvo dealerships, one each in Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh. The company will also provide a free two-year warranty and factory schedule maintenance up to 60,000 km (whichever is earlier). The S80 is set to take on sedans like Mercedes E Class, BMW 5 Series and Audi A6. The SUV XC90 will take on the BMW X5, Mercedes M Class and Audi Q7, besides Landcruiser Prado from Toyota. The XC90 is a cross-country SUV with a robust and well-proportioned design that gives the car a sporty look. With top-of-the-line design and safety features, it will provide good competition to other SUVs in the same class. The S80 seeks to provide stylish space and versatility.Volvo will import these products as completely built units (CBUs) from the Volvo Sweden plant. While the S80 sedan petrol variant will be priced at Rs 39 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), the diesel variant will be cheaper by Rs one lakh. Similarly, petrol version of SUV X90 can be had for Rs 46 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), the diesel version will cost Rs 45 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). Volvo Cars India is looking at ndorsing sports, particularly sailing, as a brand promotion tool for its range of cars. Volvo plans to expand its dealer network to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Kolkata and Jaipur soon.The dealerships would house accessories, spares, workshop services and body shops and varied financial services, as per Volvo’s global format.
About Volvo:
Volvo Cars is owned jointly by Volvo Car Corporation and the company’s former owner, AB Volvo. With two major production plants in Sweden and Belgium, Volvo Cars’ sales and service network covers about 120 countries and it sold over 4,28 000 vehicles around the world in 2006. Globally, the company sells models like the XC90, Volvo S80, Volvo V70, Volvo XC70, Volvo V50, Volvo S40, Volvo C70 and the Volvo C30.Volvo group has a dominant share in global commercial vehicle market and car market. Volvo’c car division was acquired by Ford in 1998 for US$6.45 billion. The Indian subsidiaries of volvo and Ford are planning a joint strategy under which Volvo will cater to the high-end market, while Ford will feed the mid-size segment. Volvo will take Ford India’s support on various operations such as human resource, homologation procedure, information technology, logistics, accounting and taxation practice while it would focus on products, pricing, marketing strategy and network. However as of now there is no agreement for platform sharing between the duo in for Indian market.