General Motors India is gearing up for an action-packed 2012 with a slew of launches and boosted plant capacity.
It is hiking capacity at its Halol (Gujarat) plant from 85,000 units to 110,000 while the Talegoan plant has capacity of 140,000 annually. A new light commercial vehicle (LCV) will be made at Halol.
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“We are planning to launch five vehicles with 14 fuel variants next year, including an LCV. A few will be shown at the 2012 Auto Expo in January,” Karl Slym, GM India president, told just-auto at a media presentation of the electric Beat.
One of the five new vehicles may be a hatchback.
Of the Beat EV, Slym said: “We have no plans to launch the electric Beat in India. It is a demonstration vehicle and part of a learning process to produce such a vehicle in future. It will help us in technology improvement, determining costs and in studying customer interest in electrification of vehicles in markets like India.”
GM had shown some interest in launching an electric version of its Spark in India while it had a JV with Indian electric car maker Reva but it had to postpone its plans when rival automaker Mahindra & Mahindra bought Reva.
Meanwhile, GM India is further expanding the Beat line with a diesel version out next month.
“We always wanted to extend our portfolio in the premium hatchback segment by adding a diesel version. It will also bring volume with the increasing popularity of diesel cars in India,” Slym said.
GM is looking forward to record growth of 24% in 2011 on the back of model range expansion.
“We sold 110,000 units in 2010 and will likely end 2011 with sales of 135,000 units,” Slym added.
