Volvo cars to beat Audi, BMW, Mercedes to make hybrid cars in India

Volvo Cars is just not betting big on hybrid and electric cars globally but has also given some real good thoughts on bringing in hybrid and electric vehicles in India soon. Volvo Cars India confirmed that it will start local assembly of its plug-in hybrid Volvo XC90 Excellence from its Bengaluru plant in order to stay ahead of its target to sell 1 million hybrid/electric cars by 2025 worldwide. The other big news at the launch of Volvo XC40 SUV was that its elder sibling, Volvo XC60 will be locally manufactured from its Bengaluru plant. Volvo XC60 SUV sits between the XC40 and XC90 SUVs and was launched in India about 6 months back. Currently, Volvo XC60 SUV is already on sale in India and has had a successfull run for the company in 2018.

With the local made Volvo XC60 SUV, the company is in line with PM Modi's Make-in-India campaign with three of its products being locally made including Volvo XC90, Volvo S90 and Volvo XC60. Volvo Cars India has invested heavlily to assemble its cars and SUVs based on Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform. Volvo XC40 is based on the company's new CMA platform and in the near future expect the Swedish carmaker to invest further for locally made Volvo XC40 in India.

Volvo says that from 2019 every new model will feature an all-electric variant and the company will not hold back electric cars from the Indian market. The company's long-ter strategy is aimed at electric cars/SUVs. "We need to be ready in India just as we need to be ready anywhere else in the world," said Charles Frump.

Volvo XC90 plug-in hybrid Excellence trim is already on sale in India and costs about Rs 1.30 crore and is the only plug-in hybrid SUV on sale in India. Volvo says it expects about 50% of its sales to come from fully electric vehicles by 2025. India will play a crucial role for Volvo Cars to achiece its global 1 million electric vehicle sales target in next 7 years. Localisation of XC90 plug-in hybrid is indeed a big step by the company.

A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle runs on both an an internal combustion engine (ICE) and also gets an electric motor which is powered by a battery that requires charging.

Volvo XC60 is the third product based on SPA platform to be assembled in India and this will bring company's CKD columes to around 50% of its total sales. Volvo XC60 has contributed to over 25% of Volvo's total sales in India. In the first 6 months of 2018 (Jan-June 2018) the company has already sold over 3.17 lakh cars globally.