Volvo rolls out 'Sedan S80'and 'SUV XC90'

New Delhi, Sep 6 (UNI) Swedish auto major Volvo today launched S80 Sedan and a sports utility vehicle (SUV) XC90, and said it eyes to dominate the country's luxury car segment, which it expects to double by 2009.

''The vehicles will be imported as completely built units (CBUs) from Sweden and Volvo and sell them through three dealerships, one each in Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh,'' company's Director Paul de Voijs told reporters here.

He said the company will have nine more dealers by end-2008 for which discussions will be started by this year-end or early next year.

The new dealers will be at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Kolkata and Jaipur, he said.

Mr Voijs said if the market is big enough, the company will decide in a year's time to support an assembly unit.

Volvo S80 is priced between Rs 38-44 lakhs and XC90 will come in the range of Rs 45-52 lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi).

''We see the luxury car market here more than doubling by 2009 on organic growth, upgraders, new launches and because the segment grows faster in emerging markets,'' he said.

Mr Voijs said the decision to assemble vehicles in India would be made with Ford first, which now provides back-end support to Volvo.

The luxury car segment, which he defines as upward of Rs 25 lakh will see sales of about 4,000 units this year, a 30 per cent increase over the previous year, he said.

There may even be a demand for niche products like convertibles, but de Voijs expects that there will be greater demand for its sedans in India and the company will launch its next Sedan by the end of next year.

''Punjab, Chandigarh and Ludhiana have good potential in terms of per capita income. So, the company decided to go for dealership in Chandigarh,'' Mr Voija said.

UNI