Volvo Car Corporation on Tuesday said that it was open to collaboration with its parent Ford Motor India for starting assembly operations in the country, as it targets to sell 500 units here in the current year.
The company, which entered the Indian market in September 2007, is looking at possible synergies with Ford and did not rule out joint manufacturing operations in the near future.
"Though we are yet to take a call on starting assembly operations in India, we would look at all possibilities where we can have synergies with Ford Motor Co and we will leverage from them," Volvo Car Corp Senior Vice President (Marketing Sales and Customer Service) Gerry Keaney told reporters in New Delhi.
He said the company was exploring the possibility of leveraging from synergies with Ford, which will help in reducing operational costs and bringing down prices. The company could look at replicating its China and European models in India, where it operates in association with Ford and other group companies.
"For our assembly operations in China, we share a factory with Ford and Mazda. Similarly, in Europe, we have extensive synergies with group companies in terms of purchasing and R&D," Keaney said.
The company said it wanted to study the market for at least one year before it takes a call on starting assembly operations here. Volvo, which has received orders for 100 cars from India, expects to close calendar year 2008 with sales in excess of 500 units. It is also expanding its dealership network to have a pan-India presence.
"India offers a great potential for Volvo and we expect to sell more than 500 cars in the country in this year. Our first three dealers here are expected to be operational by next month and we hope to add 4-6 more dealers to our network soon," Volvo India Managing Director Paul de Voijs said.
The company presently has three dealers in Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai and would expand to cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jaipur.
He said the company expects the new dealerships to be operational after second quarter of this fiscal.
Volvo sells two models, sedan S 80 and SUV XC 90, in India. While S80 is sold in a range of Rs 38-42 lakh (Rs 3.8-4.2 million), XC90 comes in a range of Rs 44-52 lakh (Rs 4.4-5.2 million).
"The demand for both the models is evenly split. We expected to sell more diesel powered cars but to our surprise demand for the high end V8 executive variant has been more," Paul said.
On launching new models in India, Paul said: "We need a year of experience to determine which new models to bring in India and would decide by the end of this year."