Undaunted by its parent going belly up in the United States, General Motors India today said it will roll out a slew of models, including a small car priced at around Rs 4 lakh (Rs 400,000) by this year-end.
The company also said it will achieve a growth rate of 10 per cent in 2009 despite a fall in sales in the first five months of this year.
"The mini car will be in the upper end of the mini-car segment. It will be with a ballpark price of Rs 4 lakh and will hit the market by the end of this year," General Motors India president and managing director Karl Slym told reporters in New Delhi.
The small car, which will be developed on the platform of GM's concept car Beat, will be manufactured exclusively at GM India's Talegaon facility for serving the domestic as well as export markets.
"As of now, the mini car will be manufactured in Korea and India. From India, we are also planning to export to the Asia Pacific region and European countries, which could start by 2010," Slym said.
When asked about the company's sales target for the current year, Slym said it would maintain last year's growth (which was 10 per cent) despite GM India's sales falling in the first five months of this year.
"From economic point of view and from GM's point of view of what was happening in the US, we have seen some damage in the first quarter in India, but now it is showing signs of recovery. So, I think we will be in the last year's level of 10 per cent growth," he added.
On the company's target of capturing 10 per cent of the Indian car market by 2010, Slym said with expansion of product portfolio, it would be able to do so.
The company sold 65,702 units in 2008. It enjoys a share of nearly 3 per cent in the domestic passenger car market.
Besides, GM India on Friday launched the LPG version of its small car Spark priced at Rs 3.52 lakh (Rs 352,000), ex-showroom Delhi.
"We plan to continue to introduce the variant of the Spark that targets different groups of customers. This will enable us to achieve our goal of becoming a market leader in India by giving our customers the vehicle that they want," Slym said.
The company would also introduce a luxury sedan Chavrolet Cruze by September carrying a price tag between Rs 12 lakh (Rs 1.2 million) and Rs 14 lakh (Rs 1.4 million).
