Satyam, Nano not to affect FDI in India: Volvo chief

The Satyam fiasco, which rocked the IT industry, and the Tatas pulling out of the prestigious Nano project from Singur last year, would in 'no way' affect flow of foreign direct investments into India, a top official of luxury car maker Volvo Car India said.

"I don't think such incidents will play a big role in this country. From the long-term point of view, I think the need for FDIs will increase for a country like India," Volvo Car India managing director Paul de Voijs said.

"This Satyam case may be a larger issue here, but I think that will not get much attention in any other country," he said.

On the company's performance after entering the Indian market last year, he said the car maker has so far sold 100 units.

"As part of our expansion plans, the company already proposes to set up more dealerships across the country," he said.

"Right now we have three dealers and this year the fourth dealer will be appointed in Hyderabad. It will be followed by one each in Cochin, Mangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Kolkata," he said.

Stating that the company rides on 'quality performance' than quantity, he said they are focused 'more on quality than producing volumes'.

The company right now delivers cars to customers as completely built units from its headquarters in Sweden.     

On setting up a manufacturing facility in India, Paul said it was too early to start discussions on assembling vehicles in India. "Compared to European countries, India is a completely different market for us and we need to study the market before setting up our facility", he said.

On the marketing strategy, he said they prefer to advertise through 'direct marketing' like sponsoring an event.

"Last year, we conducted the Volvo Ocean Race in Kochi for the first time in India and it was a huge success", he said.

He said luxury car makers were now seeing a decline in sales due to the current recession, but sales tend to grow faster when the economy picks up.

Referring to the country's largest auto-maker, Maruti Suzuki, which recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Maruti 800 and Hyundai Motor unveiling its much awaited 'i20' in India, he said Volvo did not have any plans to launch vehicles in that category.

The company presently has a presence in 140 countries and the cost of their vehicles in India ranges between Rs 38 lakhs (Rs 3.8 million) to Rs 52 lakhs (Rs 5.2 million), he added.