India is the sought after destination for all the major global automakers. With a tremendous growth potential in the Indian markets, no one wants to miss grabbing a share of it. The US based auto giant, General Motors (Chevrolet India) is now aiming to grow much bigger in India with plans of launching about 7 to 8 models in a span of the next 5 to 6 years. Apart from the launching of new models, GM India also has plans to export small displacement diesel engines from its Indian manufacturing and assembling facility. To cater to the extra demand of the additional 7 to 8 models, GM has already made plans of doubling the production capacity of its manufacturing plant at Talegaon.
Currently, the Talegaon plant has an annual production capacity of 1.4 lakh units while its manufacturing plant at Halol has a capacity of 85,000 per year. The doubling of the reduction capacity of its Talegaon plant to meet additional requirement of the new launches was announced by Rakesh Mohan, General Motors (GM) India Vice President (Manufacturing). Apart from that, the expansion is taking place to also incorporate the additional requirement of manufacturing and assembling small diesel engines for export. With the new launches, GM India aims to take its market share to double digits from the current single digit figure. This was announced in the beginning of 2012 by GM without specifying any timeline to achieve it.
The recent upcoming models from the GM stable are the Chevrolet Sail U-VA hatchback. The Sail U-VA hatch is expected to launch on 25th October in India. This will be followed by the sedan version of the Sail in December. GM is having high hopes from the Sail hatch and the sedan models in the Indian market. The Sail has been jointly developed by GM and its Chinese counterpart, SIAC Automotive. Another recent model to be launched would be the Chevrolet Enjoy MPV. The Enjoy MPV is also expected to launch in 2012 along with a sedan version of Chevrolet Sail which will compete with the likes of Dzire, Etios and Verito in India. Stay tuned to Car Blog India for latest updates and new car launches.
By – Joy Chatterjee
