The Indian bus market, which significantly shrank during the pandemic, is looking up again as markets started showings signs of recovery, said VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), a joint venture between Volvo Group and Eicher Motors.
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The country’s bus sales were in the 65,000 to 70,000 units range per annum in pre-pandemic times, but the market almost vanished during COVID to some 10,000-plus buses, said Vinod Aggarwal, MD and CEO of VECV.
“The bus market has been showing signs of significant recovery on the back of recovery seen in the intercity bus travel and tourism industry. In the first four months of this fiscal alone some 19,000 buses are sold and some 5,000 buses are sold in a month in the country,’‘ said Mr. Aggarwal.
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The luxury bus segment, although a niche segment, was also in a growth mode, he said. “We are expecting the luxury bus market also to recover this year. Currently, some 1,000 luxury busses are sold in the country,’‘ Mr. Aggarwal added.
The Volvo 9600 platform caters to the luxury sleeper and luxury seater travel segments. With this, Volvo becomes the first auto OEM in the country to release fully loaded ready to run buses. | Photo Credit: Handout e-mail
Volvo Buses India, a division of VECV, on Wednesday announced the launch of Volvo 9600 coach platform, which is available on the 15m and 13.5m configurations in sleeper and seater variants. These new busses were manufactured at the company’s Hosakote plant, near Kolar.
Volvo invests ₹400 crore to ₹500 crore every year at its Hoskote plant where it manufactures luxury buses, cars and construction equipment.