By IANS
Kolkata : General Motors (GM) India, a wholly owned subsidiary of US carmaker General Motors, has set a target of selling 90,000 automobiles in 2008 to capture a bigger market share in the country.
“We have sold 60,000 units in 2007. We plan to increase the production by 30,000 this calendar year, capturing 4 to 4.5 percent automobile market share this year from the existing 3.2 percent,” said Karl Slym, president and managing director of GM India, here.
GM India Monday launched its new Chevrolet Captiva sport utility vehicle (SUV) in Kolkata.
“Our target in 2008 would be to capture 12 percent market share in passenger car as against nine percent we currently have,” Slym added.
The company, which has brought out Spark in the compact segment, wants to keep the focus on SUV segment for now.
“We have found more opportunities in the SUV segment and so the focus is on this area. Captiva has been launched to tap this market further,” vice-president, marketing and sales, Ankush Arora, said.
“However, Spark would sell more this year since it was launched only last year middle,” he said.
GM India presently produces the Chevrolet Optra in both petrol and diesel variants, Chevrolet Tavera, Chevrolet SRV, Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Aveo and Aveo U-VA at its plant in Halol near Baroda in Gujarat.
The Halol facility of the company was expanded to 85,000 from 60,000 units in April 2007 while GM India’s second plant is coming up at Talegaon near Pune in Maharashtra.
“The Pune plant will have an initial annual production capacity of 140,000 vehicles and will commence production by the last quarter of 2008,” Slym said.
“We are investing $300 million in the Pune plant,” Slym said.
The company said its biggest thrust would be now on the service sector and the cost of ownership.
“We hope to improve that further. The cost of parts of a Spark is always cheaper than a Maruti. We are opening more service stations all over, ” Arora said.