GM India to launch new small cars in the Rs 5+ lakh segment

General Motors India was launched in 1996, much before Hyundai India. At that time, GM was as big as it is today, Hyundai on the other hand, not so much. Even then, GM India today has a 1.8% market share, while Hyundai India has a 16% market share.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra and GM India Managing Director Arvind Saxena roll out the first Chevrolet Beat for export from the GM Talegaon manufacturing facility, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. The exported Beat will be available to customers in Chile early next year.

This more or less tells about GM India’s journey so far in the sub-continent. Now, with India being projected as the next big market in the auto industry, GM India has revealed their plans for second innings.

First part of the plan is to establish itself in the mass market segment. Today, the under Rs 5 lakh segment accounts for about 70% share in the auto industry, but this is slowly changing. More and more people are looking towards more spacious and feature rich compact cars. And this is the segment which will see the launch of new range of compact small cars from GM India.

Though they have not revealed which cars, GM India did say that they want to reach annual sales of 4 lakh units in the domestic market by 2025. That’s a huge jump when compared to their 2014 sales of 57,600 units. But, their Chief of International Operations, Stephan Jacoby is confident.

GM’s second innings in India will be nothing short of a product blitzkrieg. They have already announced the launch of Trailblazer SUV for later this year, and Spin MPV for 2016. By 2017, they will launch these new range of compact cars, which will give them a boost in sales.

< Chevrolet Trailblazer at 2014 Delhi Auto Expo

Apart from domestic sales, GM India will give equal attention to their exports. Last September, their CEO, Mary Barra was here to expert the first LHD Beat model for export to Chile. With support from PM Narendra Modi’s Make in India campaign, GM will reach out to newer export markets, with India as its production base for surrounding nations.

This growth plans will also involve increasing capacity at their two plants – one each in Talegaon, Maharashtra and the other in Halol, Gujarat. If they meet their 2025 targets, their total capacity chould have more than doubled to at least 570,000 units a year; from present 282,000 units a year.

via Economic Times