GM India to start 2nd shift at Talegaon from March

Upbeat over the demand for the newly-launched Chevrolet Beat, General Motors India has decided to start a second shift from March onwards at its Talegaon facility in Maharashtra.

Second shift operations were originally planned from June, but the company decided to prepone it to March, as the Chevrolet Beat saw over 10,000 bookings in the first 26 days. The B+ segment car, launched in January, has a waiting period of two months, informed P Balendran, director and vice-president corporate affairs, GM India. He said from March the company would scale up production to 400 units per day at Talegaon, from 200 units a day at present.

"We have been able to deliver 2,825 Beats in January and target to deliver around 4,000 units in February.", Balendran said. The Talegaon facility produces the Chevrolet Spark and Beat, while its Halol plant manufactures Tavera, Optra and Aveo. "The Chevrolet Spark is also in high demand and has a waiting period of 45 days", he added.

GM India sold 9,421 units in January.

Meanwhile, the company has decided to start a third shift at its Halol facility in Gujarat to cater to production requirement.