Swedish car major?Volvo Car Corporation (VCC) is now set to woo Punjab customers, after Germany based DaimlerChrysler and BMW entered the state with their luxury car segments. The company is planning to debut in Punjab market by launching two models?S80 and XC90 priced at Rs 38 lakh and Rs 45 lakhrespectively on 12 th September in Chandigarh. Both the flagship brands of VCC will be available in petrol and diesel variants at the three Volvo dealerships, in Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh.
Talking to FE, Paul de Voijs, managing director, Volvo Car India said, “Punjab is a key market for us as the people have a very high per capita income. At present, we have established our dealership at only three places in India. But we have already mapped about nine more cities where we will eventually expand. The decision will likely be taken in January next year as to the location of the new dealers. Both these cars will be imported into India as completely built units (CBUs), from the Volvo Sweden plant and will be available in 14 colours.” With two major production plants in Sweden and Belgium, Volvo Cars sales and service network covers about 120 countries, comprising some 2,500 sales outlets and service workshops around the world. Volvo Car Corporation sold 4, 28,000 cars around the world in 2006.
The XC90 is a luxurious cross country/ SUV and S80 has been created to provide a stylish space and versatility, appealing to the sophisticated lifestyle of people. “After these two models, we will be launching a new Sedan for the Indian market sometime in the next year. The cars will be imported as of now and after observing the market we might think of assembling them here,” shared Voijs.
Punjab, considered to have the highest density of Mercedes Benz in India, is turning out to be a key market for the auto majors. Even Volvo has plans to tap the growing market in Ludhiana. Voijs added further, “After we launch the cars in the market, we will analyze the response from this region. We are looking at Ludhiana as a prospective market. We might expand in other cities at a later stage. We are also planning to tie up with some banks to offer retail financing facilities to our customers.”