Bankrupt GM banks on India with slew of small cars

06 June 2009

Bankrupt US auto giant General Motors yesterday listed India among the "very important" markets that held the key to its turnaround and said it hoped to achieve a double digit share by 2010 on the back of higher sales of mini cars. The company will roll out a slew of models, including a small car priced at around Rs400,000.

The company also said it will achieve a growth rate of 10 per cent in 2009 despite a fall in sales in the first five months of this year.

"The mini car will be in the upper end of the mini-car segment," General Motors India president and managing director Karl Slym told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of the LPG version of its small car, Chevrolet Spark.

Slym noted that GM has already invested around Rs1,000 crore at its Talegaon plant near Pune in Maharashtra for the manufacture of engine transmissions, and around Rs1,500 crore for a car manufacturing facility there. Once the former facility is completed next year, GM would increase localisation across all its Chevrolet models.

The small car, which will be developed on the platform of GM's concept car Beat, will be manufactured exclusively at GM India's Talegaon facility for serving the domestic as well as export markets.

"As of now, the mini car will be manufactured in Korea and India. From India, we are also planning to export to the Asia Pacific region and European countries, which could start by 2010," Slym said.