The Hindu Business Line : General Motors bullish on India

GENERAL Motors has identified India as one of its major growth regions during 2004 and targeted up to $800 million in revenues from the country apart from China and Thailand during the year.

"The target is to improve profitability in India," the General Motors President and Managing Director, Mr Aditya Vij, told Business Line.

The auto giant has identified India as one of the countries in the Asia-Pacific to drive growth for the company globally. The global plans for 2004 were revealed to auto analysts in the US in early January.

Mr Vij said the world's largest carmaker is bullish about India because of the success of some of its models in the country. General Motors was the only carmaker in the country to launch as many as four cars (Vectra, Chevrolet Forrester, Corsa Sail and Chevrolet Optra) in as many segments in 2003.

Though the response to its cars was mixed, it was the launch of the Optra, which swung its fortunes and saw the company erase losses and post a growth of 77 per cent over 2002. The launch of the 1.8-lt Optra and to some extent Corsa Sail boosted the sales of the carmaker to finish the year with 15,155 units compared with 8,548 in 2002.

The Optra sold around 4,247 units since its launch in July while Sail sold 2,782 units during the year.

The combined sales of Sail and Optra constituted around 46 per cent of total sales of GM during 2003.

During the same year, however, the company stopped production of Opel Astra and slowed down production of Corsa Swing.

The Vectra sold a total of 461 units since its launch in January 2003 while the Forrester sold 178 units since its launch in March 2003.

Tavera launch in May

General Motors will launch its multi-purpose vehicle Tavera in May while it has not fixed a date for the launch of its small car Spark.

Sources in General Motors said Chevrolet Tavera will be a highly economical vehicle and take on Toyota's flagship brand Qualis. The Chevrolet Tavera has been jointly developed by GM and Isuzu Japan.

In Indonesia, where it was launched two years ago, Tavera has a 2.2-lt, 8-valve four-cylinder gasoline engine, which uses the MPFI (Multi Port Fuel Injection) and manual transmission system and meets Euro II emission standard.