The Hindu Business Line : GM keen on making India export base for new cars

Bangalore, Dec 4 General Motors is moving towards building new cars for the world market out of India on the back of a slew of new initiatives announced recently.

Sources close to the auto maker told Business Line that General Motors’ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Rick Wagoner, is keen on using India as an export base for manufacturing new cars for other regions in the world.

He is expected to visit the country sometime next year to inaugurate the company’s new manufacturing plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra. The new factory will have a capacity to produce 1.45 lakh vehicles per year.

Key manufacturing base

General Motors is already preparing the ground in India for the car maker to turn the country into a key manufacturing base. The recent announcement of setting up a car design studio, only the eleventh such studio in the world for the car maker, shows that it has bigger plans for the country.

General Motors is also setting up an engine and a transmission factory which will cater to both the export as well as the domestic market. Though the location for the engine plant has not been announced, it is likely to be set up near the new factory in Talegaon.

On Tuesday, General Motors announced that it plans to carry out joint research in electronics, controls and software with IIT-Kharagpur with an initial funding of Rs 5 crore, signalling the company’s growing interest in tapping the country’s resources for several of its projects. “Indian researchers are among the best anywhere in the world,” the GM Research and Development Executive Director, Dr Alan Taub, said. Incidentally, General Motors India Science Lab has about 45 such collaborative ventures with Indian research and IT companies.

Creating talent pool

General Motors is also creating a talent pool in India for its future needs by jointly developing a new educational curriculum with IIT which will lead to a post-graduate degree in electronics, controls and software.

Sources also pointed out that one of the reasons for the Detroit-headquartered General Motors to show more interest in the Indian market was also because of the excellent results posted by the company in the domestic market. In 2006, General Motors posted sales of around 36,000 units in the Indian market and it expects to double the sales during the current calendar year, a feat not expected to be achieved by most car makers in the country.

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