Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo Cars has unveiled its all-electric SUV C40 Recharge in India, which will be launched in August, and deliveries will start in September. The vehicle will be the company’s second electric offering in India after its fully-electric XC40 Recharge launched last year.
In 2018, Volvo Car India had sold 2,600 units. Last year it sold around 1,800 units in the domestic market. Asked if the company could cross-record sales this year, Volvo Car India Managing Director Jyoti Malhotra, said, “We want to cross it. I am very confident from the demand side, but there are still constraints from the supply side.”
He said that The supply chain constraints mostly have to do with semiconductors, adding that the average waiting period is about three months across models. The EVs will play a significant role in closing on the record sales this year, Malhotra said.
“The way we are doing business, we started our first (electric) car last year with the XC40 Recharge, and now we are bringing the C40 Recharge. This will help us to improve the market, and we are very confident that this will help us add new customers to buy electric cars,” he said. Malhotra further said, “Within our own portfolio, we are now close to 27 percent (of total sales coming from EVs).”
Earlier this year, in February, the company had stated that it could go fully electric in India by around 2025, much ahead of its global target of becoming a full-electric car company by 2030.
The company had stated that it would keep launching one electric vehicle every year in the country going forward. “I think we are very much on the right path, and we believe that we will get there much faster,” Malhotra said on the progress towards electrification.
On the C40 Recharge, he said it has been built as an EV from scratch, delivering a range of 530 km on a single charge. It has a 78kWh battery, twin motors, and maximum power output of 408 hp. The vehicle can accelerate from 0-100kmph in 4.8 seconds. It also has a fast charging feature that enables 10-80 percent charging in 27 minutes.
The C40 Recharge would be imported as completely knocked down units and assembled at the company’s Bengaluru plant as is being done with the XC40 Recharge. Volvo Cars’ current India portfolio comprises fully-electric XC40 Recharge, SUVs XC90, XC60, and XC40, and sedan S90.
