Volvo Cars rolls out first India-assembled XC90 from Bengaluru plant
Volvo Cars, Swedish luxury car company, has rolled out its first India-assembled car, the Volvo XC90 from its plant in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Earlier this year, Volvo Auto India had announced that it would start assembly operations in India during 2017. With the Volvo XC90 now locally-assembled, Volvo Cars aims to double its share in the segment to 10 per cent by the end 2020. The assembly plant located near Bengaluru will focus on models based on Volvo's Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) modular vehicle platform. Apart from the Volvo XC90, other models based on the SPA platform including XC60 SUV, S90 sedan, and the V90 crossover are also slated for local assembly and the same will be announced in the future, Volvo Cars stated. Volvo, however, did not specify a timeline on the local assembly plans for these models.
Volvo Auto India MD Charles Frump called it a moment of great pride for everyone at Volvo Cars. "The roll-out of first locally assembled Volvo Car speaks volumes for the company's commitment to growing further in India," he said. For the assembly plant, Volvo Cars is utilising the existing infrastructure and production licenses of the Volvo Group India, which already manufactures trucks, buses, construction equipment and Penta engines at the Bengaluru facility. Volvo Auto India aims to sell 2,000 cars in the country by the end of 2017, to mark a 25 per cent growth in sales on year.