The downfall in the market has not shattered the efforts of General Motors in recovering from the bankruptcy. The company now sees the Indian market as an ideal platform to regain its strength and is on full swing mood. The immediate point is to reach the target of 2 lakh units in another two or three years. The move comes in the wake of releasing new products like Beat, LCVs and mini cars with the tie-up from the Chinese Shanghai Automotive.
After a massive bail out from the US government, the company has not spared any moment to let lose and this is the time for it to restructure the movements. Already it has established a good show in China with a partnership from SAIC and the next step is to stabilize in the potential Indian market. According to the company’s GM for India, the end of 2009 would see the sale of around 70000 units which would be 1 lakh by the same period next year followed by 2lakh in 2012. By the time, the portfolio would be filled with varied products, he said.
To reach these marks, the company has designed new ranges – Cruze sedan (launched in October @Rs10.99 lakh which is lesser than Honda Civic, Toyota Altis, Skoda Laura and VW Jetta). The next giant step is with Chevrolet Beat small car making way to the Spark to be a tough competitor to Hyundai i10, Suzuki Ritz and Swift. Slated for the launch on January 5, the price is yet to be announced and this 1.2lit petrol engine unit may cost around Rs3.5- 4 lakh .
The company depends much on this Beat to upbeat the downfall in the small car segment (70% share in the domestic market).
The company is hopeful of getting a sale of 5000 units per month that would take the cumulative total to 5-digit monthly sales. Beat will be available in diesel version sometime next year. GM is to concentrate on small car segment as already the engine plant is expanded with another facility at Talegaon to produce 1.0lit diesel engines for pushing the Beat.