In spite of a recession in the auto sector, General Motors expects its Indian operations to grow 20 per cent during this year beating industry growth rate of about 7 per cent.
General Motors India Vice-President, Mr P. Balendran, told newspersons that most of the growth of General Motors has been through the operations in China and India. He said General Motors was confident of reaching 10 per cent market share in India by 2010. At present, the market share of the car maker is around 4 per cent.
The company expects to increase its sales by 20 per cent to about 80,000 units during the current calendar year. �We may fall short of the target by 10,000 units this year because of the overall recession as well as high interest rates. But we would still grow by 20 per cent compared with the last year,� he said.
Mr Balendran said the company will initiate talks with public sector banks for financing auto loans. �We have tie ups only with private sector banks but we want to rope in PSU banks as well,� he said.
He added that at present PSU banks take at least a month to clear auto loan applications, and hence, the car maker wanted to make it easier for its customers by tying up with the PSU banks. It is also expanding its dealership network by 42 service outlets to 190 and sales points by 43 to 188 by the end 2008.
General Motors is also in talks with its vendors to reduce costs as it sources about $300 million worth of components for its overseas plants. It plans to increase the sourcing to about $1 billion in another two years.
The car maker has so far invested about $1 billion into its Indian operations. It has already started production of its small car, Spark in its new Talegaon factory in Maharashtra, which has been set up with an investment of $300 million.
Tech centre
Its GM Tech Centre in Bangalore employs around 1,200 people, and it has evolved into a core centre of engineering and design for four areas: product engineering, power train engineering, manufacturing engineering and design. It recently carried out the mid-cycle enhancement of its multi-purpose vehicle, Tavera.
The company has invested about $61 million in its tech centre since its inception in 2003. �The engineering team of the tech centre has made a significant contribution in reducing vehicle development time and structural cost,� said Ms Sheila Jain Sarver, Vice-President for Engineering, GM India.
Mr Prakash Bharati, Director for India Science Laboratory and Chief Scientist for R&D General Motors� India, said the focus of the lab is on math-based modelling and simulation of various processes, behaviour of materials, structures and systems.
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