General Motors has launched a new version of its Chevrolet Optra sedan in India, and said that boosting its presence in India was key to maintaining its global leadership, Reuters reported.
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“The Asia-Pacific region is home to five of the world’s eight fastest growing markets. India is No. 2 on that list,” Jay Cooney, director of media relations at GM Asia Pacific, reportedly told a launch news conference, adding: “As a company, GM knows that to be successful and to maintain global leadership, we need a substantial presence in India.”
Reuters said that General Motors, through its wholly owned unit, has been in India since the mid-1990s and produces several variants of the German-engineered Opel Astra, Corsa, Swing and Sail models at its plant in the western state of Gujarat.
But, the report added, its bigger, expensive models struggle to compete in the Indian market, where 78% of the cars are small, low-price hatchbacks – in April-November, the first eight months of this fiscal year, it had only a 2.5% domestic market share.
But in the mid-size and premium car segment, where most of its models are positioned, it had a nearly 9% share, Reuters said, adding that, to boost that further, GM introduced a string of new models in 2003 – the new Optra variant is the fifth.
The new variant, powered by a 1.6 litre petrol engine, joins the existing 1.8-litre model and is aimed at the upper end of the mid-size car segment where it will compete with the Honda City, Suzuki’s Baleno and Mitsubishi’s Lancer, the report said.
The base version has a showroom price of 729,000 rupees ($US16,011) in Delhi and the top end version has a tag of 789,000 rupees, Reuters said, adding that GM expects Optra sales to increase by a third with the introduction of the new variant of about 800 units a month.
The news agency noted that India’s domestic car sales surged 25.9% in April-November to 433,840 units, with sales of mid-size and premium cars rising 57% to 93,806, while GM’s sales doubled to 10,844 units.
Company officials told Reuters they expected industry car sales to rise 11% every year until 2008 with an increasing number of buyers upgrading to bigger cars helped by lower interest rates and tax breaks.
