With an eye on grabbing high market share in the nascent electric vehicle space in the emerging markets, Volvo Cars, the luxury car maker from Sweden plans to introduce a small SUV within the next 12-18 months to bring in incremental buyers.
And in order to have a sharper focus on some key markets of India, ASEAN and other Asia Pacific countries, a different division has been carved out.
The new small SUV which will be revealed in the summer of 2023 will do well for emerging markets - as it will come with a new entry price point - which is suitable for markets like India and other Asean countries, said Jim Rowan, the global CEO of Volvo Cars to select journalists from the Asia Pacific Region earlier in the month.
"We're starting to see more and more emerging markets embrace and adopt full BEVs. As we bring a smaller SUV, I think that's going to help us as well and some of these markets because it's a smaller, less expensive car and it will come with different battery sizes. A customer can choose from different range options and price points and that's really nice. It will be a great city car as well as a highway car too," explained Rowan.
The new small SUV is part of the portfolio building plan that Volvo has, wherein it envisages launching one new model every year. Volvo was amongst the first car makers to have committed to go full electric by 2030.
Volvo launched the XC40 Recharge in India last year and got an extremely strong response from the market. With the addition of a new C40 crossover EV later in September, Volvo expects over 40-45 percent of its total sales to come from EVs in 2023, Autocar Professional learns. With the addition of a small SUV at the entry and EX90 at the top end of the market in the next few years - the company is well on course to attain its plan of attaining 50 percent of its total sales from EVs by 2025.
This story is from the 15th February 2023 edition of Autocar Professional.
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This story is from the 15th February 2023 edition of Autocar Professional.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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