GM India rolls out first Beat hatchback for export to Mexico

This year, company plans to export 19,000 vehicles

General Motors (GM) India on Tuesday announced the roll out of its first Chevrolet Beat for export to Mexico. This year, it plans to export 19,000 vehicles to Mexico from India, one of the company’s major export hubs, said Arvind Saxena, president and managing director of GM India.

“We are looking to identify additional export markets. This will help drive capacity utilisation at Talegaon facility. This is part of GM’s strategy to make India a global export hub,” he said.

GM is investing $1 billion in India over the next five years. “As a part of this, we will be launching 10 models across market segments,” said Saxena. It will introduce Trailblazer, a premier sports utility vehicle, around October. “We are also trying to source up to 80 per cent of components locally.”

 

The company while is looking at India as its manufacturing hub for exports, its struggling to sell its vehicles in India and will cease production at the Halol (Gujarat) facility from June 2016 and consolidate all manufacturing at Talegaon. The plant has an annual capacity of manufacturing 110,000 units.

GM India is not expanding its dealership network. Currently, it has 232 dealers across India.

GM India exports up to 30 per cent of its annual production planned for markets outside India. It began vehicle exports to Chile from its Talegaon facility in September 2014.It exported approximately 1,000 vehicles last year and is targeting exports of 19,000 vehicles this year.

The Chevrolet Beat is available in more than 70 markets around the world, primarily as the Chevrolet Spark. Chevrolet has sold more than one million Sparks and Beats worldwide. The Talegaon facility, which currently has a production capacity of 130,000 vehicles annually, will increase its base capacity to 220,000 vehicles by 2025.