Volvo Cars to locally assemble XC 90
New Delhi: Swedish automaker Volvo Cars aims to locally assemble plug-in hybrid variant of its premium SUV XC 90 in India from next year, a top company official said on Thursday. The company is also gearing up to drive in four additional plug-in hybrid models in the country over the next three years as part of its plans to build a portfolio of environment-friendly vehicles. “We are going to be the first car company to assemble plug-in hybrid cars locally in India. The first model would be introduced in the last quarter of next year. The localisation of plug-in hybrids marks the future of electrification for us,” Volvo Car India Managing Director Charles Frump told reporters here. The company would be rolling out the locally-assembled XC 90 T8 plug-in hybrid from its Bengaluru facility. It currently imports the vehicle as completely built-up units (CBUs). In a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), battery can be recharged by plugging it into an external source of electric power. Volvo, which sells a total of ten models in India, currently assembles three models — XC 90, XC 60, S90 in India.
Rupee depreciation adding pressure on pricing: Xiaomi
New Delhi: Xiaomi on Thursday said rupee's slide against the US dollar is adding to pricing pressure for the Chinese tech major in India, particularly in the handset market that is witnessing stiff competition. Xiaomi, earlier this month, hiked prices of two of its handsets Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A as well as that of power banks and some television sets on account of the depreciation of the rupee against the greenback. “The rupee has depreciated by about 15 per cent since the beginning of the year. While we do make our phones and power banks in India but raw material and PCBA (printed circuit board assembly) is bought in dollars. This (depreciation) is adding pressure on us... we want to continue to offer 'honest' pricing to customers," Xiaomi Vice-President and India Managing Director Manu Jain told reporters here. To offset the impact, prices of various products were raised ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 2,000 with effect from November 11. In April this year, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun had said the company will keep its net profit margin at under 5 per cent to earn the “long-term support” of its customers. India is a key market for Xiaomi and the company is aggressively ramping up its product portfolio and offline presence (through Mi Homes, Mi Preferred Partners and Mi Stores) as it aims to continue its dominance in the Indian market. As per research firm IDC, Xiaomi led the intensely competitive Indian smartphone market with 27.3 per cent share, followed by Samsung (22.6 per cent share), Vivo (10.5 per cent), Micromax (6.9 per cent) and Oppo (6.7 per cent). Xiaomi on Thursday launched its Redmi Note 6 Pro — priced Rs 13,999 onwards — that features artificial intelligence-powered quad-camera setup. Successor to its Note 5 Pro, the latest device comes with 6.26-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 octa-core processor, 64GB internal memory and 4,000 mAh battery. It will come in two variants — 4GB and 6GB RAM.