GM India to launch six new models in two years

HYDERABAD - General Motors (GM) India plans to launch six new models with 14 fuel variants in the next two years, a top company official said here Saturday.

The new models will include diesel-powered Chevrolet Beat, which is set to be launched in June this year, a new Captiva and BS-IV version of the Tavera.

“We plan to roll out a series of new products in the next 24 months,” P. Balendran, vice president of GM India, said at a press conference to mark the launch of Chevrolet Beat LPG and SMARTECH engine.

As GM India plans to introduce light commercial vehicles by the end of 2011 or early 2012, its Halol plant in Gujarat, which presently has an annual capacity of 85,000, is undergoing expansion. When completed in the next few months, it will have a capacity of over one lakh units.

Its second manufacturing plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra has the capacity of 140,000 units to meet domestic requirements and future export potential. Both plants put together, GM India has the capacity to produce 225,000 cars per annum.

Balendran said that while GM India witnessed growth double that of the automobile industry during 2010, it has set a modest target for the current year. “With a record sale of over one lakh units, we grew at 60 percent last year while the growth of the industry was only 30 percent,” he said.

“Since the industry has slowed down, it is not expected to register a growth of more than 14 percent in 2010 but we hope to grow at more than 14 percent,” he added.

He termed 2010 as the best year for GM India, the fifth largest car-maker in the country.

GM India launched the LPG version of Chevrolet Beat with the new locally developed SMARTECH engine.

It is offering two versions of the LPG Beat - the LS and LT. Both come with three-year/100,000-kilometre warranty as the petrol version and offer the lowest service/maintenance/parts cost for three years/45,000 kilometres.

The environment-friendly Chevrolet Beat LPG features next-generation/advanced LPG technology with multi-point sequential injection that provides a smooth transition between petrol and LPG with no loss in power, jerking or backfire.