subject: India Embraces The Suv [print this page] Even in India, long the fan of the small car and high fuel mileage, the SUV is making inroads again. Volvo Car Corp raised the tempo on its second sport-utility vehicle offering in India on as it tries to play catch up with rivals like BMW AG, Daimler AG, Audi AG and others in a fast-expanding market for luxury cars.
Volvo launched Volvo XC60 at a price of 3.95 million rupees ($86,367) which follows the bigger and costlier XC90, released 2008, as well as the S80 sedan that the Swedish auto maker, owned by Chinas Geely Automobile Holdings, already sells in India.
Hyundai Motors Co, imported to India its Santa Fe model on October to sell 500-600 vehicles in year according to plan. The company already received 535 bookings in India alone within the first two weeks of introduction which makes the company to revise its sales target.
Because demand outstripped production, its Fortuner SUV in India had assembled Toyota Motor and has had to twice stop taking fresh bookings since August 2009. Skoda Auto India recently introduced the Yeti SUV and expects to sell up to 8,000 units by next year.
In the April-October period of the current year, sales of utility vehicles rose 22% which ends March 31 to 183,825 units. SUV's have been sold in India in quite some time now, the enthusiastic response has been a recent phenomenon.
So far, Volvos SUVs havent done as well as some of the others. With the XC60, the car manufacturer is probably hoping the lower price compared to the XC90 will attract more customers.
