After a considerable progress in luxury coach segment, Swedish automobile major Volvo now plans to foray into city buses sector in India, a top company executive said on Thursday.
The initiative is part of Volvo's plans to broaden product offerings in India, extend them to other transportation segments and be a "more important" player in the country, Volvo India's managing director Eric Leblanc told PTI in an interview.
"City buses segment is price competitive and requires less features than luxury coaches," he said.
"We are in the process of building chassis (for city buses) and in talks with different state governments."
Volvo, he said, has captured a sizeable portion of the luxury coach segment in India and it's "growing".
"We will be looking to satisfying other segments and broadening product offerings in buses," he said.
Volvo in India is a subsidiary of AB Volvo, an organisation focused on commercial transportation, with leadership in the production of trucks, buses, construction equipment, marine and industrial engines and aero engines.
Launched in India in 1998, Volvo has a manufacturing facility at Hoskote, some 40 kms from Bangalore. It had made an initial investment of Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion), according to company officials.
Leblanc, who assumed charge of Indian operations two months ago, said the company aims to grow volumes by broadening its product range to fuel further growth.
"We have high-price products catering to certain segments, (but) not all transportation segments in India," he said.
"So, we expect to broaden our product range for trucks, buses and construction equipment and be a more important player in India," Leblanc said.
Sales turnover was around Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) in the calendar year 2004, up from about Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.5 billion) the previous year.
"We saw very good growth across all our segments -- trucks, buses, construction equipment and engines. We do expect to continue the growth," he said.