The Hindu Business Line : GM India second plant set for production in second half

Hyderabad, Jan. 17 General Motors India is set to commission its Talegaon plant during the second half of this year. This move would significantly enhance the automotive major’s production capabilities, along with flexibility in model roll out.

The new plant is expected to add about 140,000 units when fully completed. The trial production is likely to begin in couple of months and commercial production a month thereafter, according to Mr Ankush Arora, Vice-President, Marketing, GMI.

After launching its latest sports utility offering Captiva, Mr Arora said that the new plant would bring more flexibility in production and also help the company launch other models with different fuel options. These could be CNG and LPG variants of mid- sized sedan Aveo.

The company has, thus, invested about Rs 3,500 crore in India across two manufacturing units and a research and development centre in Bangalore, he said.

Asked about the general direction of the automotive industry, Mr Arora said that last year, the automotive industry, all segments included was about 2 million, with passenger cars at about 1.4 million. This reflected a growth of about 14-15 per cent. This year, it is likely to be 10-12 per cent.

The company had announced its move to invest Rs 1,300 crore in the Talegaon plant near Pune to compliment its existing facility at Halol in Gujarat.

The company is planning to roll out about 1,000 Captiva SUVs during the year, which would work out to about 30-40 per cent of the segment it is addressing. The Captiva, a 2-litre diesel engine powered vehicle, is priced at Rs 17.74 lakh.

“South India and Andhra Pradesh are attractive markets for SUVs, and we expect Captiva to fit this bill, which is currently addressed by Honda CRV, Mitsubishi Pajero and Nissan X-Trail,” he said.

During the year, the company is targeting sales of about 90,000 vehicles across all its models up from 60,000 last year, with their new small car Spark launched in middle of 2007, bringing in significant sales volumes, along with other offering Tavera. Spark has bookings up to March-April.