Volvo may set up its new EV manufacturing facility in India: Report

Volvo, in 2022, had announced its plans to expand its certified used-car business across India by early 2024

Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo Cars is exploring possibilities to set up a new electric vehicle manufacturing facility outside China and India is a contender in the race, a report by the Economic Times (ET) said. The demand for EVs is expected to jump in 2023 due to advancements in charging infrastructure and price parity with diesel and petrol engine vehicles. 

According to the chief executive officer (CEO) of Volvo Cars Global, Jim Rowan said that the final decision on location is yet to be taken but India and Southeast Asian countries are among the top contenders.

"We need to make sure that we can feed other countries other than just India from that location. And then, therefore, we need to look at the logistics of that. And also the cost benefits...But (we are looking) in Asia, that's something that we're looking at the moment," Rowan said. 

Last year, the automaker announced its plans to expand its certified used-car business across India by early 2024. The company said that it expected as much as "one-third of its volumes" to come from the second-hand cars segment. Volvo operates its pre-owned car business under the Selekt platform globally and it launched the platform in India with two dealerships.

"We have just started a pilot for our pre-owned certified car platform Volvo Selekt with two dealers in India. We want to expand it in phases and we are looking to ensure that the platform is across our network by 2023 or early 2024," Jyoti Malhotra, managing director at Volvo Car India had said.

Rowan also said that internal combustion engines and electric vehicles will be at price parity by 2025. This will make electric vehicles affordable for a larger number of customers.

In November, the company announced a price hike of up to 1.8 per cent on three of its models, XC90, XC60 and XC40 Recharge. In India, the company sells XC40 Recharge at Rs 56.90 lakh.