According to a top executive, Volvo cars will only introduce electric automobiles to the Indian market going ahead and will stop offering gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles “beyond the 2030 deadline.”
“The new products that we will bring to the market will be electric,” Martin Persson, head of Volvo Cars for the Asia Pacific (except China) region, told ET. “We still have the ICE (internal combustion engine) products, and we think they are competitive for customers who want that. It is not about taking that away. But, at the same time, the future is pretty clear.”
The market for electric vehicles is still tiny in India, where the company currently reports that 25% of its sales come from EVs, but it is expanding rapidly, according to the company. It stated that as more cars are received, more people will want to buy them, hastening the adoption process.
In order to capitalize on the potential of this rapidly developing market, Volvo Cars plans to launch one new electric car year for the foreseeable future.
The EC30 will come first in 2025, and then the premium EC90. Executives stated that a launch schedule for the flagship electric model will be revealed soon.
Persson said the Indian market is evolving at a pace similar to Japan and Korea, where sales of electric vehicles are limited at about 2%, currently. “But the penetration (of EVs) in the luxury segment is higher than that in the mass market,” he said.
Jyoti Malhotra, managing director of Volvo Car India, said the company has 22-23% share in sale of luxury EVs in the country with two models. “This will expand further with the launch of the EC30,” he added.
Persson said the potential for growth in India’s luxury vehicle segment remains healthy. The country is among the fastest growing markets for Volvo in the region and the outlook remains positive, given the increasing number of millionaires here. “We are studying the market here to examine what actions we should take to grow further,” he said, adding this could be “industrial action or some other measures”.
“I think there’s no company that doesn’t have India on their agenda right now, you know, because first of all, there is such an exciting future for the country,” Persson said. “One of the reasons I’m coming here now is to understand the market, go back and then say how do we best capture the potential.”
Volvo Cars India, among others, is studying the Scheme for Manufacturing of Electric Cars announced by the government in March this year. The company, however, is yet to take a call on participating under the scheme.
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