It was a few months ago that Volvo Cars announced that all new models from 2019 would only be fully-electric or part electric (plug-in hybrid) cars. This means there will be some form of electrification across all its model lines and every car sold. Volvo aims to sell 1 million electrified cars by 2025. In the same year it hopes that half of its sales would come from fully-electric models or variants. So naturally this means more electric and hybrid models for India too. And this was confirmed to us by Charles Frump, the Managing Director of Volvo India, on the sidelines of the XC40 drive in Hyderabad. Interestingly, the Swedish carmaker's last two launches have been diesel-only, even as it acknowledges a move away from that fuel type in a year's time. "Volvo India has already announced that the next generation S60 sedan will come to India, and will be petrol-only (since that is how it will sell worldwide)", says Frump. Volvo Auto India has already brought us the plug-in hybrid variant of its flagship SUV - the XC90 T8. It is expected to follow that up with similar plug-in versions of the sedan sibling of that car - the S90 T8, and also the hybrid variant of the recently launched XC60. This applies to only all new models coming out from 2019, whereas, the existing models with diesel variants will continue offering those engines for the immediate future.
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Volvo already offers the plug-in hybrid variant of its flagship SUV - the XC90 T8, in India
The XC60 midsize SUV was introduced to India in mid December 2017, and has got off to a good start in India according to Frump. In fact it remains sold out in most parts of the country, since it got a further shot in the arm ever since the car won World Car of the Year in March this year. The XC40 will join that family of SUVs - a family that is now complete according to the company. With it the brand hopes to grow at higher levels than the 28 per cent growth it achieved in 2017, when it sold over 2000 cars for the first time. It has also moved to local assembly for its XC90 and S90. It will focus on locally building just its SPA cars - the ones based on the Scalable Product Architecture platform. Subsequent investments will be made on bringing the compact platform cars like the XC40 and then S40, V40 - once there is clarity on levels of acceptance of electrified cars by Indian buyers. India is the fastest growing market for Volvo worldwide according to Frump. This has helped accelerate expansion here with 6 more dealers (and city locations) being added this year. It has also now opened a parts warehouse in India for the first time to help dealers address parts needs quicker and cheaper. There will be further network expansion on 2019, but that will cater to adding locations in cities Volvo is already present in.
Volvo XC60 and the S90 sedan are next in line to get plug-in versions in India
For now the immediate focus for Volvo is to try and get a slice of the 6000 units/year pie that is the premium compact SUV, with its new XC40. The car will launch in July and take on the BMW X1, Mercedes-Benz GLA, Audi Q3, Lexus NX and Range Rover Evoque. The former three cars have the primary share of the aforementioned pie. The X1 has 37 per cent, the GLA has 35 per cent while the Q3 holds 28 per cent share.
