Volvo Buses Driving Future Innovations

Akash Passey, Senior Vice President, Volvo Bus Corporation, is a man to be reckoned with. Having had the privilege to kick-start a hitherto unknown premium bus brand in India at the dawn of the century, he has been instrumental in making Volvo Buses a big hit in the domestic bus industry, making the brand synonymous with luxury and safe bus travel in common man’s lexicon. With over 25 years of experience, he is currently responsible for business performance of the Swedish bus maker in the international region covering Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, China, CIS countries and India. In a detailed interview with MOTORINDIA, he tells Dhiyanesh Ravichandran that Volvo Buses has always been a global pioneer of tomorrow’s technologies since day one, and will continue to set new benchmarks on safety, environmental care and quality in every regional market it operates

Volvo Buses is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of city buses and coaches. In this new decade of 2020, could you tell us about your global presence? Which are the top leading and emerging markets that are quite promising for the brand at present?

I have been responsible for the international division of Volvo Buses for over seven years now. During this period, we have made good strides all across globe. We have already made our presence felt in Europe and, to some extent, in the Americas as well, and in recent times we have had immense success in moving into different parts of the world in a vibrant manner. On the whole, I would say we are in a dominant position in most of the leading cities of the world, with a healthy 30-50% market share in public transport, city bus, and long-distance segments. Prominent among them are Singapore, wherein almost 70-80% of the double-decker population is that of Volvo.

We have recently supplied some 50 hybrids as well; Australia with over 40% market-share in city buses, Hong Kong with over half of the double-decker market share – even more promising for us with the city’s recent transition to Euro 6. Some 700+ buses with Volvo moniker will hit the roads in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE this year as part of the run-up to World Expo 2020 scheduled in July this year at Dubai. We are posting good businesses in markets like South Africa, Morocco, and India. More specifically in India, we have a stronghold in the premium segment with almost 90% market share, along with a bit of the city bus segment as well. Over the years, we have also grown immensely in South East Asia, Oceanic, Middle East and African regions, while a continued focus is also on CIS countries, including Russia.