indo-asian news service, Bangalore, July 14: Swedish transport major Volvo will export buses made in India to Europe initially and global markets subsequently, a top company official said Tuesday.
“We will be the first bus company to export to the European market from India, taking advantage of lower manpower costs and neutral duty,” Volvo Buses Corporation president Hakan Agnevall told reporters.
Volvo entered India 15 years ago, ostensibly to foray into high-end truck segment, but got into the luxury buses with the prime mover advantage as the domestic rivals Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland have been contended with rolling out ordinary buses for the cities and semi-luxury coaches for the inter-city and the inter-state routes.
“Besides lower manpower cost and minimal overheads, we will avail customs duty exemptions on import of engines, components and accessories used in making buses for exports at our factory near here,” said Volvo Buses vice president Akash Passey.
Volvo’s Indian subsidiary has invested an additional Rs400cr in doubling its installed capacity at its Hoskete plant, 40 km from Bangalore, to 1,500 units per annum. It employs about 1,000 people.
“As the country’s passenger transport market has been down over the last couple of years due to various factors, including recession, we could not fully utilise the production capacity as the demand or order was for 600-800 buses per annum,” said Passey.
