JUN. 28 6:22 A.M. ET Volvo Car Corp. announced Wednesday it has decided to branch out into India, with first sales of its models there due in the fourth quarter of 2006.
The new subsidiary, Volvo Car India, will have its head office in New Delhi, the company's CEO Fredrik Arp said.
The Ford Motor Co.-owned carmaker said it would begin its product introduction with the Volvo S80 and the Volvo XC90 models, with plans to introduce other models on the Indian market “in due course.”
“It is an important step for Volvo Cars to establish a presence on this market at a time when India is showing considerable growth in the passenger car market,” Arp said.
Volvo Cars said it expects the total new-car sales on the Indian market to increase from 1 million cars per year to 1.6 million over a four-year period.
“This gives us an excellent foundation for starting sales of Volvo cars on this market,” Volvo Car India's Managing Director Paul de Voijs said.
Volvo Car Corp. is based in Goteborg, southwest Sweden, and has global annual sales of around 450,000 cars. It has about 27,000 employees worldwide.
