Volvo Shifts Focus to Asian Markets to Accelerate Business

The Swedish luxury carmaker, Volvo has shifted its focus to Asian markets, specially China and India, to improve its business. The European market is showing no signs of immediate recovery from the financial crisis, which leads the auto-maker to shift focus towards Asia. Speaking to the media, Tomas Ernberg, Managing Director at Volvo Auto India said that "European markets aren't showing signs of immediate recovery from global economic slowdown. And, so we have shifted our focus to Asian markets, specially China and India,". As of now, the China and the Japanese car markets are the biggest markets for Volvo's luxury cars. The company also believes that the Indian auto industry can become one of the leading markets for luxury cars, and the car-makers are focusing more on driving sales.

Volvo will launch its luxurious V40 Cross Country in India this year, and the car was already launched in European markets. The car sales has already clocked 50,000 units, which is remarkable. However, the company hasn't made any comment on the pricing of V40 Cross Country. For instance, the firm doesn't have any plans to set up manufacturing facility in India. Volvo already have a strong manufacturing presence in Europe and in China, indicating that Volvo cars in India will come as CBUs (Completely Built-in Units).

The Swedish car-maker has also plans to develop a new engine architecture, incorporating four-cylinder technology, to offer a different range of performance. Volvo had sold 820 units in 2012 as against 320 units the year before. More interestingly, the company has witnessed a huge growth in first quarter of 2013, and have already sold 1,100 units.

The company has opened its first dealership outlet in Ahmedabad, which is spread over 3,500 sq ft. Additionally, it has plans to open two dealership showrooms in Surat next year and in Rajkot in 2015 to further enhance the Volvo Cars sales. In order to reach maximum consumers, Volvo aims to launch three more dealership showroom in Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi by the end of this year. Currently, Volvo Auto India has only four products to offer buyers in India, namely S60 and S80 luxury saloons, along with XC60 and XC90 sports utility vehicles (SUVs).