General Motors is on the upbeat mood of capitalizing the Indian car market by deriving the makes from its Chinese partner SAIC. The range will include three cars and two LCVs and may be on the Indian roads in another two years, said its MD for India. The cars are slated for manufacturing from the company’s Talegaon facility and the LCVs from Halol. Both SAIC and GM are very keen on imprinting their presence in the ransacking Indian car market, as GM is topping the table in the Chinese market. The move to concentrate on India is to expand the horizon to ASEAN regions smoothly. According to unreliable sources, the new models will include Sunshine MUV from SAIC platform at Rs5 lakhs.
The leader in this segment is Toyota Innova [images] at Rs8-12 lakh whereas M&M’s Xylo [images] is sold at Rs6.5-9 lakhs. If Sunshine costs less than these ranges, than there will be a red carpet welcome for it. However, the Indian customers are not aware of the reputation of SAIC in India but GM brand image would fill in the slot. Similar will be the case for ensuing Wulink pickups under Chevrolet range. The passenger car segment may see GM-SAIC offering a car much below than Alto, may be in the range of Rs2-2.5 lakhs to compete strongly. GM is running high with its existing two models, Spark and Beat under Rs3- 4.5 lakh range and the price factor is the key to reach more buyers. In that case it will be on par Hyundai’s proposed small car for 2011. The MD said that the Indian market is gradually gliding towards 2 and 3 tier segment which constitutes 60% of the net dealerships for the company. There is an arousing response from these areas for new products.