GMI to launch second small car in 2009

Pune: General Motors India (GMI) has plans to introduce a second product in the mini to small car segment in the later part of 2009, and expects to double its market share in India from the current four per cent in the next two to three years.

The company inaugurated its second plant at Talegaon and rolled out the first Chevrolet Spark. Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Union Agriculture minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, were present on the occasion.

In addition to a car manufacturing plant with an installed capacity to produce 140,000 cars annually, the new, state-of-the-art, 300-acre facility will also accommodate GM’s first ever power train plant that will make diesel and petrol engines. This will go on stream in the first quarter of 2010, and play a major role in increasing the local content in its vehicles from the present 40 per cent to nearly 80-85 per cent, Mr Fritz Henderson, President, General Motors Corporation, USA, said. The new facility presently has 1,000 employees, over 80 per cent of who are drawn from surrounding areas, he added.

With $300 million invested in this project, another $200 million committed toward the engine facility, GM’s total investment in India over the last five years has touched $1 billion. The combined prodcution capacity at Halol and Talegaon is 225,000 units.

GMI has signed a two-year contract with the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) for the supply 12,000 litres of bio-diesel for use as alternative fuel in its cars. In the first phase of a three-phase initiative, the company is already testing this as a fuel on six GM engines, Mr P. Balendran, Director and Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, said.

The second phase involves the institute using seeds from jatropha cultivation on two acres at GM Talegaon to extract fuel. In the third phase of the project, CSMCRI will undertake jatropha cultivation on a contract farming basis on 80 hectares of land in Gujarat for production of seeds for bio-diesel. Negotiations for this are currently underway.

“The fuel will be tested on all GM vehicles across models,” Mr Balendran said adding that the financial outlay on this was in the region of half a million dollars.