General Motors (GM) launched the much awaited Chevrolet Captiva SUV at the Auto Expo. Captiva is priced at Rs 17.74 lakh. General Motors (GM) hopes to sell 1,000 units of captiva SUV by the end of 2008. “The two-litres diesel engine powers Captiva has everything that a premium SUV customer in India wants. We are positioning it as a contemporary SUV here,” Mr Karl Slym, President and Managing Director, GM India said.The other specifications of Indian captiva is expected.
Chevrolet Captiva SUV will compete with Honda’s best selling sports utility vehicle (SUV), CR-V, which is sold at Rs 19.1 lakh, Mitsubhi’s Pajero priced at Rs 18.1 lakh and Ford Endeavour CRDi among others. General Motors is also considering local assembling or producing of the captiva SUV in the future. “We expect to sell 1,000 units of Captiva in India in 2008. Currently we import it as a completely built unit, but if the market dynamics change, we may consider local assembly or production,” Karl Slym, president and managing director of General Motors India Pvt. Ltd. said at an Auto Expo.
LPG Aveo Sedan:
GM also intends to introduce environmentally-friendly gas-powered variants of its Aveo sedan in India.We are working on compressed natural gas, or CNG, and liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG variants of the Aveo sedan,” said Ankush Arora, the vice president of sales, marketing and service for General Motors India, without providing a timeframe for their introduction.
Market share and expectations
” We are in the sixth position now, and have already overtaken Toyota in market share. By 2010, we want to be in the fourth position,” Ankush Arora, vice president (sales and marketing), General Motors India, said after the launch of SUV Captiva at the Auto Expo. Arora added that by the end of 2008, the company’s manufacturing units in India will have a total capacity of 225,000 vehicles. GM is building its second plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra, which will have a total capacity of 140,000 vehicles by the end of this year. “The full capacity of the manufacturing units in India will be utilised by 2009,” Arora said.