Volvo Buses India Private Limited, a subsidiary of Swedish vehicle market Volvo Corporation, is aiming to create an opportunity to sell 5,000 buses in India and be a $1-billion company, said managing director Akash Passey.
Speaking to mediapersons at the Bus and Special Vehicles Expo (BSVE) 2011 here on Wednesday, he said, “The dream is to achieve our goals by 2015. Towards this, we will be investing between Rs 200 crore and Rs 300 crore to ramp up our production capacity to 5,000 buses at our Hosakote facility (near Bangalore) from the present 1,000 units per year.”
The Hosakote facility will thus expand almost 100 per cent and will also result in a 30 per cent increase in manpower (currently 1,100) in the coming two years, Passey added.
Stating that the future of Volvo Buses in India was backed by a strong Indian footprint, he said the company today had almost 80 per cent share in the luxury inter-city A-C coach segment and over 50 per cent market share in the A-C diesel low-floor city buses, which are present across 12 cities in the country.
On whether the company would roll out low-cost models for the domestic market, Passey said, “We are not in the volume game. We will go with the segment where we can create value.”
The company sold 560 units in the last calendar and was expecting a 25-30 per cent growth in volumes in 2011, he said. It clocked revenues of Rs 600 crore last year and was hopeful of witnessing a 30 per cent growth this year.
Explaining the features of Volvo’s new I-Shift technology, he said the technology was an automated gear-changing mechanism and driver-friendly. With this new transmission, the best driving practices are secured irrespective of the driver.