GM India expects 50% growth in 2010

With the bankruptcy crisis behind it, US car maker General Motors expects sales in India to grow by up to 50 per cent next year on the back of its proposed mini car to be launched this year-end.

General Motors India (GMI), the wholly-owned subsidiary of the American car maker, has also geared up to introduce its small car Spark with a 800cc petrol engine in 2010.

"We will launch our mini car by the end of this year and with this, we are expecting sales to grow by 40-50 per cent next year," GMI President and Managing Director Karl Slym told reporters here.

Last year, the company had sold 65,702 units and is expecting a jump of 10 per cent in this year, he said.

"We are even hopeful of selling 75,000 units in 2009," he said, adding GMI has already sold over 42,000 units this year.

Slym said GMI's sales in India were affected due to perception when its US parent was struggling to come out of bankruptcy. In June General Motors had filed for bankruptcy protection in the US, which excluded the Indian operations. The company emerged out of bankruptcy in the same month.

Indian car market is estimated to be 20 lakh units in this year and is expected to be 40 lakh units in next two year, of which over 80 per cent will be small cars, Slym said.

Although GMI has presence in the small car segment with its Spark and Aveo U-VA, it is still a fringe player compared to Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors.

The Indian compact car segment is set to witness stiff competition, with American car maker Ford also announcing ambitious plans for the segment with its Figo yesterday.

He said the mini car, named and developed on Beat platform, will come in petrol, diesel and LPG variants.

GMI will also consider introducing an electric version of the Beat in collaboration with Reva Electric Car Company.

Asked about the 800cc Spark, Slym said: "We will launch it next year... We are looking for an incremental jump in the sales of Spark next year... This year we expecting to sell 40,000 units."

Earlier, the company had said it would export at least 20 per cent of the planned production of 50,000 units of its mini car within the first 12 months of launch. The car is expected to be priced around Rs 4 lakh.

GMI would also roll out luxury sedan Chevrolet Cruze on October 12 with a 2.0 litre diesel engine, which would be followed by a 1.8 litre petrol one.

With the Indian passenger car market showing signs of revival and to meet the festive demand, GMI has ramped up its production from last month.

"Currently we are producing about 400 units per day in our two plants since mid-August... Before that we were selling about 5,000 units per month," Slym said.

In the first half of this year, the market was down and it gradually came out of recessionary trend, he said.