Volvo on track to double market share despite seeing bad days

Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo's plans to double its market share in the country by next year is on track even though it expects 2019 to be a "tougher" year for the industry due to the forthcoming elections and other industry factors. Volvo, which emerged as the fastest growing luxury carmaker in the country, vrooming with a 30 percent volume growth in 2018 at 2,638 units, had last year said it was aiming to double market share by 2020. In 2018, its market share stood around 7 percent.

"We are certainly on a very good track for gaining market share. By the reported numbers, we are the rapidly moving up there," Volvo Car India managing director Charles Frump told PTI Wednesday after launching its second dealership in the city and 25th nationally.

The luxury car market is dominated by the German players with Mercedes alone sitting on cornering over 40 percent of the market pie, followed by BMW and Audi. The Tatas-owned JLR has a little over 10 percent of the 41,000 units market, which was barely 1.5 percent of the 2.5-million-units domestic car market in 2018.

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The luxe car market is estimated to have logged in a tepid 4.5 percent growth at around 41,000 units in 2018 owing to weak consumer sentiment amid market headwinds.

Frump, however, said he would see better tracking of registration to measure the volume.

He said considering the liquidity situation and the general elections in the summer, 2019 could be a "tougher" one for the industry, which barely grew in 2018. "If we can repeat our performance in 2019, we will be very happy."

He said Volvo will be the first carmaker here to assemble plug-in hybrids. It plans to start local assembly of the plug-in hybrid variant of its premium SUV, the XC90 from its Bengaluru plant by the yearend.

Apart from this, a range of plug-in hybrids are also slated for launch in the next three years, he added.

Volvo India's product portfolio includes the XC90, XC 60 and XC40 range of SUVs, the S60, S60 Cross Country and the S90 sedans, and the V40 and V40 Cross Country hatchbacks, besides the station wagon V90.