The Volvo Overseas Delivery Program was created to meet the needs of travelers to Europe, along with military and diplomatic personnel who wished to have their new Volvo automobiles delivered throughout the world, as their individual work or vacation plans dictated. The program is also known as Volvo TDS - Tourist & Diplomat Sales and Volvo Car International Customer Sales (VCICS).
Since the program started Volvo has delivered over 300,000 vehicles
via Overseas Delivery.
Celebrating a Vintage Year - 50 Years of Volvo Overseas
Delivery
Collecting a
new car
directly from Swedish carmaker
Volvo
is a way of buying a Volvo that has proved popular among
customers such as diplomats and tourists. Volvo Cars
sales company VCIC has over 50 years of successful business in the
area.
It all began when
certain people at Volvo became aware of the "love affair" between
American diplomats, military personnel and tourists and Scandinavia.
Goteborg, Sweden was home to an unknown carmaker and the company's
attractive P120 (Amazon) model was proving a popular Swedish
"souvenir" among foreign visitors.
The year was 1956 and
Volvo was the first among its competitors to discover that it could
sell cars profitably to international customers.
However,
the company first had to solve the relevant customs clearance, tax
and registration issues:
"The
cars had to driven to Norway or Denmark for registration, then back
to Sweden for shipment,"
recalls Torben Eckardt, CEO of the VCIC (Volvo
Cars International Customers) sales company.
Since then, the business has expanded at an increasing rate, with
sales growing by 5-10 percent annually in recent years.
The Volvo XC90,
an SUV that was launched in 2002, is the model that has had perhaps
the greatest impact on sales. However, Torben Eckardt believes that
the new flagship Volvo S80 and the compact C30 (which is to be
launched in September) will generate even more traffic to the VCIC
offices adjoining the Torslanda plant in Goteborg:
"We
have completed 50 years and we are hoping that the next 50 will be
equally successful,"
says Torben Eckardt.
VCIC supplied about 7,200 cars in 2005. Of these, 2,450 were
delivered in Goteborg and the remainder throughout the world.
1927 saw the birth of the first Volvo. It also marked the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean when Swedish descendant Charles Lindbergh and his Spirit of St. Louis captured the imagination of America. Now we would like you to imagine yourself on a flight (much more comfortable than the Spirit of St. Louis) to Europe to pick up your new car, compliments of Volvo.
Over the past fifty
years, thousands of people have "Gone on a Journey for Life" and
become Volvo owners. Take a moment to meet a few and hear
their stories.
Watch the Volvo Overseas Delivery Program video.
