The introductory price of the Volvo XC40 is Rs 39.9 lakh ex-showroom for the fully-loaded R-Design variant with a diesel engine. According to the senior officials, this pricing is not sustainable so a revision is expected soon. The timeframe for the price hike is not decided yet and neither is the final price tag that’ll make this crossover profitable for the company.
Impossibly Affordable
For now, Volvo appear to have put their margins on the line as there’s no way the XC40 can undercut its locally-assembled rivals while being a CBU import. Local assembly will help cut those losses while a price revision will make it profitable. But, all that will depend on the volumes this crossover can bring in. Volvo may even speed up to get the local assembly commenced if the demand justifies. The local assembly of the XC60 will begin this quarter and, given the strong demand for SUVs and crossovers, we believe the XC40 won’t stay on the CBU path for long.
The compact luxury SUV segment is said to be the most lucrative of all churning out ~6,000 units per year in India. That’s a big pie and even a small slice of that will result in a sizable growth for the Swedish carmaker.
Flexible Frame Can Take A Variety Of Powertrains
The newest Volvo stands on the brand new Compact Modular Architecture platform — CMA for short. Just like the bigger SUVs’ SPA platform, this one is capable of accommodating a petrol engine, a diesel engine, or a petrol-hybrid engine with front-wheel drive as well as all-wheel drive. This will allow them to rapidly deploy hybrids should the need and/or demand arise.
New Parts Warehouse
Along with their most affordable luxury crossover, Volvo also announced that they now have a warehouse for spares in India. This will result in faster turnaround times for customers. At the same time, it benefits the dealers as they no longer have to worry about:
1. locking up their capital
2. holding the spares onsite
3. dealing with the customs and paperwork
New Dealerships This Year
By the end of this year, Volvo will have 5 more outlets, thus helping them expand their reach and add more customers to the Volvo family. The manufacturer has witnessed steady growth, both, in India and worldwide, since the redesigned models started hitting the showrooms. The trend is expected to continue as XC40 makes the brand even more accessible for buyers looking to stand out. The manufacturer delivered 5,71,577 units worldwide in 2017. With 3,17,639 models already moved this year, it looks like a target of 6.5 lakh units for 2018 is very much within reach.
Here’s a gist of XC40’s notable features:
– Biggest footprint in its class
– Boxy proportions for a rugged SUV look
– Best-in-class power and torque (190hp/400Nm)
– All-wheel drive is standard (Sourced from Haldex)
– Only diesel engine for now
– 8-speed automatic (Sourced from Aisin)
– Radar-based safety features
– Traffic sign recognition and warning if you exceed the speed limit
– Automatic full emergency braking
– Large animal detection
– Adaptive cruise control (maintains a safe distance from the vehicle in front and moves automatically; no acceleration of braking input required
– City traffic assist (Automatically manages the acceleration and braking at low speeds)
– Lane keep assist
– Semi-autonomous driving (On well-marked and open stretches of road, the XC40 can drive for short durations without requiring any driver inputs, not even for steering)
– Panoramic sunroof
(The article was contributed by our fellow pundit Mr. Mahesh Yadav)