Chennai: For Volvo Car India managing director Paul de Voijs, 47, it has been a smooth transition from a career as a French and Dutch language teacher to the world of cars.

"I found teaching was not my cup of tea and decided to move towards corporate world," Voijs muses. So, in 1985 he joined Volvo and quickly made the transition, learning the tricks of the trade in his initial job with the automaker's dealers in France.

"I found the industry to be fascinating and fantastic. It is not rocket science," he reminiscences.

Before coming to India in 2004 to explore prospects for Volvo vehicles in India, Voijs had had put in stints in Russia and Belgium.

"In India we are investing in only in marketing," he says on the company's plans for India.

With just three dealers spread across Chandigarh, New Delhi and Mumbai, Volvo Car India has already received bookings for 100 cars, shared equally between XC90 and S80.  (See: In the lap of luxury: Volvo enters India with two cars) "Except the Chandigarh dealer the other two are in the process of setting up their infrastructure," Voijs adds.

"We will appoint dealers in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Hyderabad and Jaipur," to help achieve the company's projected sales of 500 units in 2008, the first full year of operations for Volvo Cars in India.

Undaunted by the prospects of competitions, Voijs maintains that Volvo has entered India for the long term.

 "In a growing market there is space for every player. In 2007 the size of the segment we operate was around 4.5 lakh units. I will not be surprised if it doubles this year."