The Indian luxury car market is currently being ruled by German auto makers, with Audi at the first, BMW at the second and Mercedes-Benz at the third position. Volvo, the Swedish car manufacturer, is busy developing strategies, with crucial inputs from the brain of its new Chinese owner, Geely Automobile, in order to own a lion's share in the auto market of India.
The car maker had been adopting a flexible stance on its future strategies after being sold off by its former owner, Ford. However, after being taken over by the Chinese firm, Volvo Auto India is quite serious regarding its marketing strategies. Recently, it had a meeting session in India where more than 50 senior executives from Sweden exchanged their views and designed a new strategy under the able guidance of the new Managing Director, Tomas Ernberg.
Commenting on this, Ernberg quoted “We came in 2007 and we were a little bit staid and stagnant. But things have changed significantly under our new owners. We have formulated an India strategy, which was approved by our global CEO, Steven Jacoby, himself.”
As per the new plan, the car maker is looking ahead to launch a new model every year consecutively for the next five years. The new line-up of the company will be assimilated with compact, performance oriented powertrains, which will all built on next generation platforms. Currently the car maker employs V6 and V8 motors in its models, which will now be replaced with 1.6 litre and 2 litre powertrains in its entire line-up.
The company has also proposed routing its vehicles in the Indian Territory as Completely Knocked Down Units (CKD) instead of Completely Built Units (CBU), which will help the company to maintain competitive pricing. Along with an extensive dealer network, the company also has proposals to establish a new line-up in 2013, which will square off against the likes of BMW X1 and Audi Q3, among others. In the current year, Volvo is looking ahead to inaugurate three new outlets in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi.
As an extension of its smart marketing strategy, Volvo has two-folded its advertising expenditure and signed an agreement to be the official car partner of Lakme Fashion Week. This attempt of the auto maker will help to consolidate its presence among the elite class of the country. As a part of its expansion policies, the company has almost doubled its staff members in a short tenure of just six months.
In the current scenario, the Swedish auto maker has four vehicles in its Indian product portfolio, namely Volvo XC90, XC60, S80 and S60. Mentioning the success of its portfolio, Ernberg said that the company is rejoicing with almost 80 per cent stake in the auto market of India.
Ernberg further added, “We have an industrial business unit, which is looking at different possibilities for production sites in the US, Brazil, Mexico and India. The investigations are ongoing, but still no decision has been taken, but we are looking into that very seriously.”
By the end of this year, the company anticipates to deliver 1,000 vehicles in the Indian auto market, which will be around 300 per cent more than the figures recorded in 2011. Stating Volvo’s future approach in India, Ernberg quoted, “It will be tough in the short term, but we have a long-term vision of achieving a 15% market share and 20,000 units’ annual volumes out of India. We are doing well in some of the markets, like Hyderabad, where we have a 20% market share and where we are beating Germans month-on-month. We want to replicate the same success in other regions.”
