Volvo Buses Opens Body Plant in India

Volvo Buses is opening a body plant in Bangalore, India, to gain a base for the production of complete buses for India and other growing Asian markets.

The new plant has a capacity of 1,000 buses annually and the company expects to have about 600 employees at the end of 2008. The plant is expected to primarily build Volvo Buses for the Indian market, but the company expects to be able to export complete buses to other markets in southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Since 2001, Volvo Buses has manufactured chassis together with Volvo Trucks in its own plant in Bangalore. The bodies were produced by an external body builder, Jaico Automobiles. The new body plant is being operated in a new joint-venture company with Jaico Automobiles. The company is named Volvo Bus Body Technologies India, and Volvo Buses holds a 70% ownership interest.

Hakan Karlsson, president of Volvo Buses, said: “The traffic situation in the steadily growing cities in the area is an increasingly greater problem. This increases the demand for modern buses and efficient bus-based mass transit systems.”