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General Motors will launch a slew of cars starting next month, most of which have been designed at the company's Bangalore-based centre.
GM's new President and Managing Director, Mr Lowell C. Paddock told newspersons that the design centre was involved in the development of the new Tavera model. He also inaugurated a new design centre annex which has the capability for milling full-scale or life size clay models, painting and fabrication to support global and local programme needs. The design centre, as well as the R & D centre, has a total of 2,100 employees.
While the new Tavera is expected to be launched in mid-March, the Sail passenger car will be unveiled sometime in July. Sail will be launched in both the petrol as well as diesel variants. While the petrol variant will have a 1.2 lt engine, the diesel variant will have a 1.3 lt engine. Both diesel as well as petrol models will have hatchback and a notchback (a car where the roof drops off sharply to the top of the rear compartment, as per yourdictionary.com) models.
A new multi-purpose vehicle will also be launched towards the end of the year.
Electric Car
Mr Paddock said the recently-developed electric car for the Indian market was ready for launch but it will hold it back until the Government eases norms for EVs as well as develops the appropriate infrastructure for the same.
He said the Government should unveil an auto fuel policy instead of taking short term measures like the proposal to put additional levy on diesel cars. It was also important to include provisions in the next Budget for bringing down interest rates as about 80 per cent of the passenger cars sold in India are financed.
Therefore, it will be difficult to forecast the growth rate for GM during the current year, Mr Paddock said. During 2011, GM sold about 1.11 lakh car units.
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