Volvo makes inroads into luxury interstate bus travel

By Pallavi Dubey | NT

Bengaluru: Saying India is not yet ready to switch to electric vehicles, especially for long distance travel, Akash Passey, President, Bus Division, VE Commercial Vehicles, says CNG vehicles are the company’s current focus. Cutting down on fossil fuels, he says, can be done by substituting diesel with CNG, LPG and biofuels.

Making new inroads into luxury, inter-state travel, Swedish auto giant Volvo has introduced a fleet of sleeper coaches, in collaboration with the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation. The buses have been manufactured here in Karnataka, at Volvo’s state of the art facility in Hosakote.

The pandemic brought about a drastic dip in the demand for buses, but things are slowly picking up, Passey said. “There is a growing demand for state transport and school buses.”

Commenting on the launch, Vinod Aggarwal, MD, and CEO, VECV said, ‘We are thrilled to launch the first factory-built sleeper coaches compliant with legal and Volvo Bus standards. It is noteworthy that we were able to deliver this worldclass solution within a year of establishing the VECV Bus Division, combining the Volvo Buses India operations and Eicher to energise public transport with industrydefining products and solutions,” he said.

‘Kerala has a long-term agenda to develop highquality public transport in keeping with the rapidly evolving mobility needs of our progressive state. These sleeper buses will be deployed on prominent intra-state and inter-state routes,’ stated Biju Prabhakar, IAS, Chairman and Managing Director, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.

These buses have been developed and produced as a result of the synergistic working between the Volvo Group and Eicher. VECV has adopted the world-class Volvo Group technology in products combined with Eicher’s frugal engineering.

The BMTC’s Volvo fleet hit hard times in 2020 and media reports claimed that the a/c buses had been converted into non a/c vehicles to mitigate losses. This was refuted by Passey, however.