Volvo Cars’ Indian unit has introduced three cheaper variants of its vehicles, powered by smaller engines, as it attempts to grow in a market where it hopes to sell 20,000 vehicles a year by 2020.
The company had said last August it was considering cheaper models to grow market share.
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Volvo Auto India has now introduced two-litre diesel variants of its S60 and S80 sedans and its XC60 sport-utility vehicle. The base variant of the S60 has been priced at INR2.32m (US$47,025), while the S80 is INR3.12m and the XC60 is INR3.32m at showrooms in New Delhi, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The three new variants are INR600,000 cheaper than models with a 2.4-litre diesel engine, the company said. Volvo also sells the sedans and SUV with petrol engines.
Unlike key rivals like Mercedes and BMW, Volvo doesn’t produce cars in India, making its models more expensive due to taxes on full imports.
The company said it would introduce newer models to increase its share in India and that it aims to be one of the top three luxury car makers in the country by 2020.
“[The] luxury car segment is growing at a good pace in India but it is still very small. The segment comprises 1% of total car sales in India compared to 10% globally, and we expect it to grow to 3% by 2020,” Tomas Ernberg, managing director of Volvo Auto India, told the Wall Street Journal.
He said the company wants to sell 800 cars in India in 2012, up from 320 last year.
“With new models and marketing push, we expect our sales to grow to 20,000 by 2020. We expect to have a 15% market share of India’s luxury car market by then,” Ernberg said.
