By Venkatachari Jagannathan Chennai, Nov 24, : Volvo, a Swedish automotive giant, will increase its headcount by increasing the amount of high-end work it assigns to its research and development (R&D), or Global Competency Centre (GCC), in Bengaluru.
“Next year, we will be adding approximately 500 people, and most of them will be from the GCC.Volvo global is making the centre more complicated.In an interview with IANS, Kamal Bali, President and the Managing Director of Volvo Group India, stated that several patents had been filed from this center.
He said that the proposed recruits will include engineers with qualifications in embedded electronics, electric movement, and other areas.
Bali stated that the Volvo Group India is currently working with start-ups suppliers and government authorities to innovate in the area of future energy.
The centre employs approximately 2,500 people and offers services in accounting, truck design, and robotic process automaton-related services to Volvo group companies all over the world.
According to Bali, the Indian GCC is soon to be the second largest Volvo centre outside of Sweden.
According to India Ratings & Research credit ratings report, Volvo Group India had a revenue of Rs 35.6 Billion in FY20.In FY20, the company had to spend around Rs 309 millions on capex.
Volvo India is in the construction, heavy-duty trucks, marine and industrial engines, GCC financial services, and cars business.
Volvo also has a joint venture with Eicher Motors India for mass-market trucks and buses – the VECV commercial vehicles.
The products of the group are sold under the brands Volvo, Eicher, and SDLG.
Talking about Volvo Group India’s business prospects, Bali stated that the Indian construction equipment market is very healthy now with many investments in infrastructure sectors such as roads and mines.
Bali stated that the industry will likely close the year with approximately 80,000 units, similar to the peak in 2018, and Volvo will also enjoy a share of the increase in numbers.
After Volvo launched electric construction equipment overseas, Bali stated that globally 35% of Volvo vehicles would be electric by 2030.The group will also be carbon neutral by 2040.
Bali stated, “In line that Volvo’s operations would progress in different geographies,”
He spoke out about the high steel prices and Volvo Group India’s ability for the hike to be passed on.He said that the difficult situation is likely to be solved in one quarter.
The products will see price adjustments.It has already been done in the construction equipment sector.
“We are bullish on the construction equipment segment because the government has announced National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), which will involve an investment of $1 trillion.According to Bali, a lot of investments are taking place in the road sector, as evidenced by the demand for road construction equipment.
India now has 40 km of road per day, compared to 8-9 km per day in the past.
“It will be a virtuous circle as the government has also announced their asset monetisation plans.
Bali stated that infrastructure will be built, it’ll be monetised, and further investment will go into the core sector.
Volvo has approximately 40% local content in its equipment construction and Bali said that a lot has been done during the past three years to localize components.
The company also exports construction equipment to South Asia.
Volvo is also increasing its efforts in the heavy trucks segment, which are used in mines.
The Volvo Group India, apart from selling to the marine and industrial segments, has begun selling to sugarcane harvesters, compressors, and other products, Bali stated.
Volvo Group India was home to the Volvo Bus division, which was later transferred to VECV Commercial Vehicles.
According to plans, Volvo will badge high-end luxury buses as Volvo and the mass-market vehicle will be sold under Eicher.
Officials from VECV Commercial recently mentioned 16 bus prototypes that would be badged with the Volvo or Eicher logos depending on which market segment they would target.
VECV Commercial launched a luxury 15-metre sleeper coach, called Volvo, and priced at more than Rs 1.5 crore.It includes 39 sleepers.
The eight first coaches built at the facility in Hoskote, near Bengaluru, have been sold to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.
Bali said the future of automation will be largely driven by: combination of electric and alternate fuels (CNG, Hydrogen); autonomous/driverless vehicles in confined areas like ports; new transport concepts like last mile connectivity, long haul cargo; connectivity and digitisation which would throw up a large amount of data requiring analytics and new transport business models like cargo aggregation and ride sharing.
(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)
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