GM India targets to increase the volumes by 50pc

General Motors India, fifth largest car maker in the country has adopted an aggressive growth strategy and has targeted to increase the volumes by 50% in the country.  In the fourth quarter of the current fiscal, the company will start the commercial manufacturing of petrol engines from its power train plant at Talegaon near Pune.  

On the launch of Chevrolet Beat in Bhubaneswar, Karl Slym, president and managing director, GM India commented that in the first phase they would produce 1.6 lakhs engines and in the second phase they had planned to increase it by 3 lakhs engines. Chevrolet Beat is equipped with 1.2L petrol engine and the engine was successfully tested on it in December2009. The power train plant at Talegaon will produce both diesel and petrol engines and the plant is the first flexi plant in GM group.

Last year GM India had witnessed six percent growth in its volumes and now the company is targeting to grow by 50% with the launch of Chevrolet Beat this year. Mr Slym reported that they were expecting Chevrolet Beat as their key pillar of their growth strategy and hoped that with its best-in-segment design, performance and safety Beat would become an industry benchmark and a winner among consumers in India. The company had also registered a market share of 4.6% in the passenger car segment during December 2009. GM had sold 70,000 units last year and now the company has intended to clock a sales figure of one lakh in the current year.