Volvo S60

All of this, and it’s here soon. Come January 2011, and the Volvo S60 will be on Indian roads, say company insiders. Wait for it!

Volvo Car India Managing Director, Paul de Voijs also hinted that the company would set up an assembly facility in India once the sales of Volvo Car India reach 2,000 units.

“We will look for annual sales of, may be, around 2,000- 3,000 units before setting up an assembly plant here. Our major plants in Sweden and Belgium have still got a lot of extra capacity,” he explained.

Currently, Volvo Car India, a subsidiary of the Ford Group company sells its cars as completely built unit. Volvo Car India would import the 2010 Volvo S60 from Belgium if things go according to plan.

The new 2010 Volvo S60 features a fantastic trademark Volvo grille and sculptured headlamps with LED bulbs. The built is strong and somewhat similar to Jaguar C-FX. The sedan comes with a 1.6 liter gasoline unit with features like turbocharging and direct-injection technologies.

The 2010 Volvo S60 is said to be capable of delivering a peak output of 180 hp and has a fuel economy of 47 mpg. The sedan also features a PowerShift six speed dual clutch transmission.

The new Volvo S60 will replace the earlier generation Volvo S60, that was phased out in May 2009.

Other than the 2010 Volvo S60, Volvo also plans to launch its much anticipated SUV, the Volvo XC60, in India in the near future. Currently, Volvo sells the Volvo XC90 under the SUV segment, and the Volvo S80 under the luxury car segment in India.

Volvo also plans to increase the number of its showrooms in India. The company plans to add five more showrooms to its existing seven showrooms. “With 12 dealerships, we can reasonably cover the entire country and then we will look at increasing our sales,” Voijs said.

There are reports that Ford may sell off Volvo after racking up losses of around $14 billion in 2008.

Volvo has two units in Sweden and one in Belgium, China, Thailand and Malaysia each. Volvo is also in discussions to open units in Goa, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. The company is also looking for dealerships in Jaipur and Kolkata.

There is no information available about the price at which the 2010 Volvo S60 will be sold in India.